How to get rid of golfer’s elbow with Physiotherapy?

Have you been feeling nagging pain in the medial side of your elbow joint? Has it been bothering you for so long that you have run out of remedies? Many people don’t know the real reason for their elbow pain and keep pushing it under the carpet thinking it will vanish on its own. Well, your elbow joint pain may turn out to be golfer’s elbow even though if you don’t play golf. You might also think how come you got it without any external injury, blow or fall, well here are certain reasons-

Golfer’s elbow is also known as medial epicondylitis. The medial epicondyle of humerus bone is irritated so much so that there is tenderness, pain and swelling at the point of origin of wrist flexor muscles. Even slight flexion of wrist joint or stretching of wrist flexor muscles causes lot of pain.

Treatment- Rest brings a lot of relief in the golfer’s elbow in acute case. Elbow splint is also very helpful in pain reduction. In some moderate to severe cases, hydrocortisone is injected at the point of origin of wrist flexor muscles which reduces the pain and swelling to a great extent.

Physiotherapy management-

1)- Cryotherapy- Application of ice pack is advised for 15 minutes, thrice a day. Ice increases the blood flow at the point of pain and heals the injury by increasing the natural healers and analgesics in that area.

2)- transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, ultrasonic therapy and I.F.T is also used in golfer’s elbow to reduce the pain and swelling.

3)- mild stretching and range of motion exercises are started once the pain has reduced to a great extent. Once the patient feels that he can do little bit more exercises then resistance and strengthening exercises are started to strengthen the wrist muscles.