An excellent, animated anatomy video, largely about “The Tennis Elbow Muscle” and its tendon – by Dr. Ebraheim, Chairman of Orthopaedics and Residency Program Director at The University of Toledo Medical Center, Toledo, Ohio.
“Tennis Elbow: An ‘Overuse Injury’ that causes inflammation, Tendinosis and lateral elbow pain at the origin of the ECRB Tendon” Tennis Elbow / Golfer’s Elbow – Everything You Need To Know – Dr. Nabil Ebraheim – YouTube
Dr. Ebraheim explains how elbow problems, including Tennis and Golfer’s Elbow, often occur where the tendon attaches to the bone.
“The problem occurs due to repetitive stress which causes interstitial tearing, inflammation and swelling.”
Tennis Elbow / Lateral Epicondylitis Inflammation, soreness or pain on the lateral side of the elbow. Degeneration of the Extensor Carpi Radialis Brevis.
I’m just going to point out that according to the medical research, inflammation does not seem to persist beyond the earliest stages of these conditions (and actual, visually-detectable, significant swelling seems to be very rare.)
Degeneration / Tendinosis, however, is found to be the defining characteristic of ‘chronic’ Tennis and Golfer’s Elbow.
(Degeneration is seen in MRIs, Sonograms and in pathology studies of excised tissue from surgeries.)
Even the best Doctors still cite inflammation as an issue / problem and sometimes even as a causative factor, but inflammation is a stage of the healing process, and if the tissue heals it will subside.
A tendon that has degenerated has by definition failed to heal and has been breaking down over time – and this is almost always what Golfer’s and Tennis Elbow sufferers are facing if they’ve had their injury for 6 months or longer.
Tennis Elbow or Golfer’s Elbow is either going to be Tendonitis (inflammatory condition) or Tendinosis (degenerative condition) although it may often start out as the former and end up becoming the latter.
See my post on the Tendonitis Inflammation Myth here for more
And you’ll find dozens more article and videos on the homepage here
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