Are Steroid Injections Good For Tennis Elbow?

Steroid injections, a number of credible studies have discovered

, may reduce tennis elbow pain for a while but could be harmful in the long term. According to many experts, specific exercise programmes, aimed at the condition, could be more useful in the long term. Tennis elbowis a result of a strain in the extensor tendons in your forearms. This is a very common injury in both in athletes and workers and is usually treated with physiotherapy. Although steroid injections are a popular treatment option some doctors believe that their use by patients actually extends recovery time.

The University of Queensland recentlyconducted a study on more than 2600 patients, suffering from tendinopathy to assess the comparative effectiveness of steroid or cortisone injections, placebo and specific exercises. One objective of the trial was not only to find out the influence of a specific treatment-type but also to find side-effects, if any.

The study revealed that while steroid or cortisone injections could alleviate pain relatively quickly, when used over a period of time, it could prove harmful for the patient. Placebos did not seem to provide any benefits. The researchers noted that exercise programmes could take longer but had a greater potential to provide lasting benefits. According to the study, Our systematic review challenges continued use of corticosteroid injections by providing strong evidence that they are worse in the long term than are most conservative interventions for tendinopathy. The experts added that exercise regimens were specifically helpful for lateral epicondylitis.

According to the researchers, corticosteroid injections, in the short term from three to six weeks, provided more relief than placebo, when administered for a patient. However, when the corticosteroid injections continued to be administered for longer than twelve months, the effects on the pain seemed to diminish. Most of the patients reported less relief than before. In fact, the pain started to worsen after 12 months.

Exercise was the best way to address the condition. Commenting on the studies, Dr Karim Khan and Dr Alexander Scott of the University of British Columbia in Canada said that "Specific exercise therapy might produce more cures at six and 12 months than one or more corticosteroid injections." Dr. Karim Khan further added, It sounds old-fashioned but specific exercise programmes are better than rest. Exercise stimulates the tendon to repair by stimulating the tendon cells to make new proteins. Tennis elbow and other tendinopathies have been shown to be a failure of tissue, not a result of inflammation, so exercise is the right thing to do.

So, steroid injections may not be the best method to treat tennis elbow. They are helpful when tissues are inflamed but can contribute to weakening of tissues and delay a return to normal activity if overused.

by: Brian Anderson

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