You don’t need to be an athlete to have tennis elbow. Despite its name, only a small portion of patients with the condition are tennis players. And regardless of whether you’re an athlete or sports aren’t your thing, there are treatment options available at our office in Naples, Florida. Knowing more about this condition can help you make the most informed decisions about potential treatment.
All About The Elbow
Your elbows are complex systems of bones, joints, ligaments, tendons, cartilage, and muscles that give you a wide range of motion to complete your daily activities. In fact, you aren’t likely to consider how this intricate system helps you to achieve countless tasks each day until you feel pain radiating from around your elbow. If you are experiencing pain when you extend, bend, or twist your arm, you may have tennis elbow.
Causes of Tennis Elbow
Contrary to popular belief, anyone who overuses the tendons in their forearm can develop the condition, not just athletes. In actuality, you are more likely to have tennis elbow as a painter, musician, or carpenter than a tennis player. Any repetitive motion can strain your tendons over time, leading to small tears that won’t heal without treatment.
Another contributing factor is age. There is an increased likelihood your elbow pain stems from tennis elbow if you are between the ages of 30 and 50 compared with other age groups.
Treatment Options
In mild cases, tennis elbow can improve on its own with rest, ice, and time. However, for more stubborn or severe cases, you may require additional intervention to get back to normal. Treatment options for tennis elbow can include:
- Immobilization
- Physical therapy
- Over-the-counter (OTC) medications
- Steroid injections
- Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections
By collaborating and discussing your symptoms and health history with Dr. Goldberg, you’ll be able to decide which treatment method is best for your unique circumstances.
Surgery
If all else fails, surgery is the last resort for most severe cases of tennis elbow. However frightening surgical intervention may seem on the surface, it is often the quickest way to healing for the rare cases of tennis elbow that don’t improve independently. Fortunately, the surgery required for tennis elbow is minimally invasive. At our office, surgery for tennis elbow is performed in an outpatient setting with Dr. Goldberg’s expert hands at the helm.
Relief From Elbow Pain in Naples, FL
If you have symptoms of tennis elbow that aren’t going away on their own, it’s time to visit board-certified orthopedist Dr. Steven Goldberg. To schedule your appointment, fill out our online contact form or give us a call today.
