Caring for Tennis Elbow

Though the pain you experience from tennis elbow is often felt along the outside of your elbow and into your forearm, it is actually an injury caused by repeated movements in your hand and wrist. When you overuse this area of the arm, it can place stress on those tendons that connect the muscles of your forearm to your elbow. Over time, this stress can produce inflammation and tears within the fibers, resulting in the characteristic pain of the injury. To treat this condition, most people find favorable results from self-care measures.

Self-Care

• When you first feel the effects of tennis elbow, ice your forearm as soon as possible. You're trying to lessen any inflammation occurring in the tendons, and this form of cold therapy is an ideal method. A bag of ice is probably the handiest, but you can also use a cold pack or the submersion of your forearm into a tub of cold water. To ensure proper healing, ice should only be applied for periods of no longer than 20 minutes.
  As soon as you've finished icing the affected limb, wrap the forearm with an elastic bandage. You want to compress the area to further lessen inflammation as well as restrict the movements of the injured tendons, so bind the area just below the elbow to about halfway down your forearm. Once the area is compressed, elevate the elbow to a level above your heart and take some time to rest the injury.
  While you care for the injured limb, continue to rest as well as limit any activity that might exacerbate the injury, such as raking, painting or playing tennis. To further aid in healing, consider investing in a tennis elbow strap, an elastic device worn on the forearm a few inches below the elbow to protect the affected tendons.

Professional Care

• For some people, self-care isn't enough to treat the condition. In this situation, a doctor will recommend a little more aggressive form of treatment. This usually entails some sort of physical therapy to determine what activities are placing stress on the tendons and what can be done to correct it. Physical therapists are often the chosen professionals to make this determination. They can come up with modification to the instigating activities as well as exercises to strengthen the area of the forearm.
  With severe and continual pain, corticosteroids are also used in conjunction with physical therapy. This type of medication reduces inflammation of the tendons and thereby lessens pain. Injections and topical creams are the preferred methods of administration. In rare cases, surgery is performed to correct the injury, but this is only used when other treatment options have been exhausted.