Tennis elbow occurs when the tendons in your elbow are strained and swollen from repetitive motions of the wrist and arm.

Although tennis elbow commonly occurs in tennis players because of the repetitive swinging motions, hence the name, it can also happen to anyone that frequently requires their arms and wrists, such as plumbers, carpenters, musicians, factory workers, butchers, and more.

According to WebMD, tennis elbow affects up to 3% of people and occurs most often in middle-aged people from 30 to 50 years old.

For people suffering from the pain and discomfort of tennis elbow, shockwave therapy is an effective treatment that reduces inflammation and repairs the tears in the muscle.

How is Shockwave Therapy Effective in Treating Tennis Elbow?

Shockwave therapy is a non-invasive treatment method that uses acoustic pressure to reduce the pain around the elbow area.

The acoustic pressure promotes the regenerative and reparative processes of the soft tissue to induce tissue repair of the tears. The stimulation also encourages blood supply which facilitates the healing process to restore range of motion.

Patients usually show improvement between 3 to 12 weeks of treatment, and the benefits of shockwave therapy were observed even one-year post-treatment.

Scientific Evidence

In a before and after clinical trial study of the short-term effects of shockwave therapy for tennis elbow, 40 patients received 2000 pulses of shockwave therapy each day for one week. The patients were then assessed on a pain scale and on their ability to perform daily activities 30 and 60 days after the treatment sessions.

The results showed a significant reduction in pain score from before the treatment to 60 days after the treatment. The Quick Dash score, which measures the disabilities of the arm shoulder, and hand, also reduced significantly and patients were able to perform their daily activities.

The results also showed that consumption of painkillers before the treatment was 47.5% which reduced to 22.5% at 30 days post-treatment and 15% at 60 days post-treatment.

Another series of five randomized controlled trials compared the efficacy of ultrasonics and shockwave therapy in the treatment of tennis elbow.

Although both ultrasonics and shockwave therapy was able to restore the function in the elbow, shockwave therapy was superior in reducing pain during and post-treatment and improved the grip strength of patients.

If you are a health practitioner with patients that have tennis elbow, shockwave therapy is an effective treatment that can alleviate pain, repair the damage, and restore motion in the elbow. Contact us today to request a demo by calling 1 (888) 741-SHOC(7462) or visiting https://shockwavecanada.com/.