role of surgery in the management of resistant tennis elbow

ABSTRACT

The aim of this work was to evaluate the role of surgery in the management of prolonged disability in patients with tennis elbow not responding to conservative and physiotherapeutic measures. Thirty patients with pain and tenderness confined to the lateral epicondyle were selected. They were 21 males [70%] and 9 females [30%] whose mean age was 40.2 +/- 5.9 years and mean duration of illness was 5.9 +/- 1.2 months. A course of ultrasonic therapy for 3 weeks was started followed by steroid injection on weekly basis for another 3 weeks. Improvement of pain score was encountered in 80.7% of patients, while degree of tenderness was better in 83.4% and functional disability decreased in 83.4%. Six patients had unfavorable outcome after 8 weeks of conservative therapy. Five cases of these patients were selected for surgical release of the common extensor origin with remarkable improvement encountered in all of them and they were able to resume their previous activities in a period ranging from 4 to 8 weeks