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Golfer’s Elbow and Shockwave Therapy

WHAT IS GOLFER’S ELBOW AND CAN SHOCKWAVE THERAPY/ESWT HELP?

  • Relieve golfer’s elbow pain with extracorporeal shockwave therapy (ESWT)Golfer's elbow helped with Shockwave therapy-ESWT
  • Use your arm with power again with ESWT
  • No drugs or surgery just shockwave therapy

Can ESWT help golfers elbow, or medial epicondylitis right here in the Bay Area?

POSSIBLE SYMPTOMS OF GOLFER’S ELBOW

  • Pain on the bony part of your inner elbow
  • Pain radiating into your forearm
  • Stiffness and pain making a fist
  • Numbness/tingling ring and pinky finger

HOW DO YOU GET GOLFER’S ELBOW

Golfer's elbow helped with Shockwave therapy-ESWT

You could be at Cinnabar Hills in San Jose or La Rinconada in Los Gatos playing your regular golf game and you start to feel the symptoms but, because golfer’s elbow is a overuse injury, the problem had been brewing for months.

Golfer’s elbow doesn’t just affect golfer’s though.  Gamers, pitchers, tennis players, bowlers, carpenters and others are susceptible. 

The flexor muscles of the forearm that aid in gripping put stress on the common flexor tendon that attaches to a bone at your elbow.  When the stress is too much, and continued for too long, tears happen on a microscopic level.  This causes inflammation and inflammation causes the initial pain of golfer’s elbow.  That is why this is a form of tendinitis (the suffix “itis” denotes inflammation).   

WHAT IS THE ROLE OF INFLAMMATION?

After inflammation your body then lays down scar tissue or adhesions.  Scar tissue is disorganized in comparison to your original tendon and it also lacks blood flow.  The scar tissue ends up altering the mechanics of your elbow causing more inflammation and the cycle continues into chronicity.  Often, we see golfer’s elbow paired with other repetitive stress injuries such as tennis elbow and you will find more exercises on the tennis elbow page that may be applied for golfer’s elbow.

HOW IS ESWT DIFFERENT?

Golfer's elbow helped with Shockwave therapy-ESWTWhen the Piezowave 2 (the brand for the extracorporeal shockwave therapy or ESWT that we use) high energy sound waves are introduced into your elbow’s surrounding tissue. Here normal tissue moves with the sound waves like water that has been displaced by a stone.  Scar tissue in golfer’s elbow is brittle, it does not bend like healthy tissue and it breaks down.  Blood can then re-enter damaged tissue (neovascularization) and lead to tissue regeneration [1,2].  With visits at 1 to 2 times per week, your golfer’s elbow will be in a healing process that may take 6 to 8 weeks.  Some symptoms will be gone sooner and some may take longer.  This is a conservative estimate.  

Golfer's elbow helped with Shockwave therapy-ESWT

 

Let’s get you back in the game.

You can reach Dr Fields for in-person (Los Gatos and San Jose, California) or telehealth appointments here.

Shockwave Therapy and Golfer’s Pain Research

  1. Ogden JA, Tóth-Kischkat A, Schultheiss R: Principles of shock wave therapy. Clin Orthop. 2001, 387: 8-17. PubMedView ArticleGoogle Scholar
  2. Extracorporeal shock waves in orthopaedics. Edited by: Siebert W, Buch M. 1997, Berlin, Springer Verlag, 1-245.