Initially you should start treating tennis elbow by stopping the activity that caused it in the first place.



The sooner that happens the quicker will be the recovery, and the initial measures apart from the rest should be ice, heat, and compression. This combination works extremely well as ice controls swelling, and heat promotes blood flow thus speeding up healing, and it also relieves the tightness and the pain.

Cold compression therapy has no clinical research to back it up, but in combination with ibuprofen which is an anti inflammatory pain killer it seems to work well.

It is a good idea to wear a tennis elbow strap just below the elbow, this seems to reduce stress on the tendon damage, as it will reduce movement in the elbow.

Having rested from tennis until all the pain has gone, you now need to work on strengthening your forearm, and you do this as follows.

Always with the elbow supported, hold a weight that fits into your hand easily, weighing between one and two Kilos. Raise and lower the wrist with your palm facing upwards, and then again with the palm facing downwards. Stop whenever you feel pain, and that is very important. The weight should be gradually increased.

The next thing is to seek help from a physiotherapist who will work on the inflammation of the tendon with ultrasound, and retrain the extensor muscles.

If nothing seems to be working, then a steroid injection into the joint will seem to cure your tennis elbow for several months, but be warned it is extremely painful, there is a risk of localised infection, even rupture of the tendon, and you may be free of tennis elbow pain for several months, but there is a risk it will come back. Be aware that you can only have two steroid injections.

Finally if all else fails, and this is a last resort, then surgery may be necessary.

If your tennis is social, then this is somewhat extreme.

To summarise, tennis elbow is very painful, but rest, physiotherapy and anti inflammatory drugs will normally cure the problem. When you return to playing an elbow brace is a sensible precaution