Tennis elbow, stemming from repetitive actions such as tennis strokes or typing, causes inflammation in the outer forearm tendons. Learn more about the causes, symptoms, and how to treat tennis elbow.
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Tennis elbow is an overuse injury that causes inflammation or degeneration of the tendons on the outside of the forearm. These tendons allow you to extend and lift your hand.
Repeat arm motions cause tennis elbow, such as:
These repeated motions cause tiny tears in the elbow tendon.
For tennis elbow prevention, be sure to:
Symptoms of tennis elbow include:
To diagnose tennis elbow, your doctor will do a physical exam — looking at your elbow and the source of pain.
He or she will ask about your activities and past injuries.
In most cases, you won't need imaging tests unless your symptoms don't improve with tennis elbow treatment.
Then, your doctor may need to do an x-ray or MRI to rule out any bone problem or tissue damage.
The goal of how to treat tennis elbow is to reduce inflammation and pain.
The first steps of tennis elbow treatment include:
Your doctor may also suggest other nonsurgical tennis elbow treatments such as:
In cases where nonsurgical treatments fail to heal tennis elbow, your doctor may want to perform surgery.
Once the pain subsides, you can do some rehab exercises to strengthen the following arm muscles around the elbow:
You may be a candidate for the Return to Play program if you are an athlete who has been treated for a sports injury, completed physical therapy, and is looking for additional support to help you safely and confidently reengage with your sport.
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