Tennis Elbow

[alophysio]

Hi Ginger,

Perhaps in your clinical experience you have come across patients who have been incorrectly labelled "LE". I too believe in treating the C/S, mobilisation of the lower C/S, the nerves and fascia. All of that is part of the usual assessment of LE (it is posted around here somewhere...)

However, there is no doubt that there are patients who really have a mechanical problem at the elbow. A simple way to find out is to treat the C/S only and find that their pain and dysfunction has not changed. Also, it would seem that treating the C/S only is not revolutionary - if it really worked that well for LE (nearly 100%), then surely it would have been reported many times over and researched thoroughly.

I do believe however that many practitioners focus too much on the elbow and not on the whole patient.

What is your particular background? What treatment styles do you use? e.g. Maitland, Mulligan, Nordic, etc

[ginger]

You are quite right of course , it is important to exclude from the group I alluded to, those whose elbow pain can be attributed to trauma. Though I do not exclude those whose "trauma" is listed or described as "overuse ", A notion I find most unsatisfactory in the aetiological considerations of this and any other MSK condition .
There is a difference in my aproach , I use a method I call Continuous Mobilisation to deal with the protective responses at the spine and restore normal facet mobility. The method has been developed over many years , and now occupies most of my clinical time.
CM was developed out a frustration with the somewhat mechanical and formula driven types of Mobs , such as Maitland. This approach can be read about in detail on the Rehabedge site under Manual therapies.
For the group that has no major trauma ( but may include "overuse', including those who actually play sport ) , my success rate does indeed approach 100 percent.
I am keen to pursue the kind of research that you have mentioned , however as a private practitioner, the resources needed and time required have always stopped me. This does not mean I have not been out there putting my method on the line as it were. This forum is one of a number that I contribute to , learn from and am otherwise encouraged by .I also lecture and teach whenever I can in Victoria.
If you are interested I'm happy to share any details you want to know about.


Thanks for your interest.