Results of the treatment of tennis elbow with extracorporal shock wave therapy: a preliminary report

Abstract

Introduction: Tennis elbow is a colloquial name of a common musculoskeletal disorder arising secondary to recurrent microtrauma of the upper extremity, particularly impacting the lateral epicondyle of the elbow. First-line treatment of the condition is conservative, with many methods which are mostly effective. Extracorporal shock wave therapy (ESWT) is one of these methods, which has shown its effectiveness in several clinical trials. The objective of this study was assessment of the effectiveness of ESWT for tennis elbow in a short (4 weeks) follow-up.
Patients and methods: Eleven patients, 8 female and 3 male with a mean age of 55 years, with tennis elbow were treated with ESWT. Each patient received 3 local applications of 2000 shocks, with 1-week interval between the sessions. The measurements included pain at rest and at movements in Numeric Rank Scale (NRS), grip strength and function of the hand with the quickDASH questionnaire. The patients were assessed before start of the treatment (baseline) and 1 week after the last application (final assessment).
Results: At the last assessment at 4 weeks, all but 1 patients experienced a major and statistically significant pain relief, increase of grip strength and improvement of function of the hand. In 1 patient the treatment failed. No adverse events associated with shock-wave therapy have been reported.
Conclusion: Tennis elbow treatment with ESWT is effective and free of adverse events.