Tennis Elbow

Treatment

Orthopedic and rehabilitation specialists work together to treat tennis elbow. Treatment involves:

• Rehabilitation. Rehabilitation can involve a variety of therapies for tennis elbow, including physical therapy exercises, deep heat therapy, movement analysis and straps or braces. If you have surgery for tennis elbow, therapists will teach you ways to exercise and work to prevent a recurrence of your injury.
• Medications. If you have severe and persistent pain from tennis elbow, corticosteroid medication injections may be considered (though a Mayo Clinic study showed no difference six months after injection between people who received corticosteroid and those who did not).
• Surgery. In rare cases, surgery may be considered if you haven't received pain relief from rehabilitation or medications. Surgery for tennis elbow involves either trimming the inflamed tendon or surgically releasing and then reattaching the tendon to relieve pain. In many cases, Mayo Clinic orthopedic surgeons can use minimally invasive surgery to treat tennis elbow, which involves smaller surgical incisions than traditional surgery.