Orthopedics-Online

You can recognize tennis elbow by these symptoms!

introduction

Tennis elbow is a disease that affects the origins of the muscles in the forearm and the tendons there.
The so-called tennis elbow is triggered by one-sided strain and overuse of the corresponding muscles, which can be caused by sports activities such as playing tennis or golf, but also by certain movements in professional life or in everyday life, especially if these are monotonous.
As a result of the incorrect strain on the muscles, inflammation develops in the area of the elbow, which ultimately leads to the symptoms characteristic of tennis elbow.

Appointment with a tennis elbow specialist?

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Who am I?
My name is dr. Nicolas Gumpert. I am a specialist in orthopedics and the founder of .
Various television programs and print media report regularly about my work. On HR television you can see me every 6 weeks live on "Hallo Hessen".

As a former performance-oriented tennis player, I specialized early on in the conservative treatment of chronic tennis elbow.
In the last few years I have successfully treated several thousand tennis arms.

You can find me in:

Lumedis - your orthopedic surgeon
Kaiserstrasse 14
60311 Frankfurt am Main

Directly to the online appointment arrangement
Unfortunately, it is currently only possible to make an appointment with private health insurers. I hope for your understanding!
Further information about myself can be found at Dr. Nicolas Gumpert.

These are the typical symptoms

A tennis elbow is characterized by the following symptoms:

Pain when grasping (clenching your fist, shaking hands) on the outer elbow
Pain when lifting the wrist against force
Tension pain on the outer elbow
morning stiffness of the elbow during the course of the disease
typically no redness, swelling, or overheating of the elbow

Leading symptom: pain in the outer elbow

The main symptom of tennis elbow is pain. These are mainly localized on the elbow.
Initially, they are usually limited to the protruding bone on the outside of the elbow and do not exist permanently, but mainly when pressure is exerted on this bone or the muscles whose tendons are inflamed is stressed.
These muscles are responsible for stretching the hand. Therefore, the pain typically occurs during the following movement:

The extension of the wrist or just the middle finger, especially when this extension is done against resistance
rotating the forearm or stretching the elbow when the hand is passively brought into a flexion position
Closing a fist can also provoke pain.

Over time, the pain usually gets worse and it can happen that it does not go away completely, even when the arm is completely at rest. In such an advanced stage, they often radiate far into the forearm.

Also read about pain in the right forearm

At the same time, pain when stretching the elbow joint and restricted movement develop, especially in the morning after getting up.

You can also find more information in our topic: Tennis elbow pain

Symptoms in the wrist

The muscles, the tendons of which are inflamed in tennis elbow, pull over the wrist and attach to the back of the hand or the fingers. With tennis elbow, there is not only inflammation at the tendon attachment point, but also tension and shortening of the affected muscles. The tension results in a poor posture, which can then also affect the wrist and lead to pain.

The pain in the wrist usually does not appear at the beginning of the tennis elbow symptoms, but only becomes noticeable after a long time. At the same time, they are also a sign that the tennis elbow has not improved with the treatment methods that have been tried.

Pain in the wrist restricts the patient even more than a tennis elbow would do without pain in the wrist. The function of the arm is also restricted and gripping and lifting objects is only possible with pain.

If the pain in tennis elbow begins to spread to the wrist, the current treatment should be reconsidered and, if necessary, adapted to the new pain situation.

Read all of the alternative medical conditions that can cause wrist pain at: Wrist pain

Weakness in the wrist

In addition, the Tennis elbow a weakness in the wrist trigger that eventually become a Reduced strength can lead.
As a result, the entire arm is functionally severely restricted, especially accessing it is extremely difficult.
Everyday movements like Shaking hands or even picking up a pen (pain when writing) can cause extreme pain for those affected. As a result, the quality of life is then often seriously affected.

Tremble

A Trembling of hands can many different causes to have. If the tremor occurs for the first time as part of a tennis elbow and only on the affected arm, a connection with the tennis elbow is very likely.
Through the inflamed tendon attachment points with tennis elbow it is Muscle performance limited. The tendon attachment point cannot be stressed as much as in a healthy state, which causes the muscle build less strength can. Tension, Foreshortenings and the resulting Bad posture reinforce the reduction in performance. The result is the forearm extensor muscles exhausted and overused faster, this overload can manifest itself in a tremor.

The phenomenon is the same Trembling after a hard workout: Frequent stress on a muscle reduces performance and can cause tremors noticeable after exercise do. In tennis elbow, the performance of the muscles is so reduced that it even with normal everyday movements tremors may occur. It is possible that the hand and forearm are affected by the tremor.

Numbness

In some patients it occurs in Course of the painful tennis elbow also to one Limitation of sensitivity on the affected forearm. Of the Loss of sensitivity is in most cases only easy to mediocre pronounced and can turn into one Numbness or in one tingle or express it in a combination of both.

In tennis elbow, there is an inflammatory process in the area of the tendon attachments of the forearm extensor muscles, which is believed to be caused by the Inflammation of the sensitive nerves of the skin be affected and thus the numbness is triggered.

The numb feeling can come only on a small area extend near the elbow or also on the forearm Towards the wrist spread. If the tennis elbow is accompanied by numbness, one should Cervical spine disease excluded, which can also trigger sensitivity disorders of the arm. Another disease with similar symptoms is this Sulcus ulnaris syndromewhere the Ulnar nerve can be paralyzed by frequent pressure. This happens through, for example frequent propping up or sleeping on your bent elbow. In ulnar sulcus syndrome, the numbness is not limited to the elbow and forearm, but also closes the Ring and little finger the affected side.

Symptoms of alternative diseases

Since the symptoms of a tennis elbow are more or less limited to the pain, it is very important that the doctor or examiner conducts a detailed questioning and examination in order to identify the tennis elbow of symptoms that cause similar pain (including the golfer's arm, but also for example the supinatorlogic syndrome)

Figure tennis elbow: below - right forearm, muscles of the extensor side (dorsal side)

Spoke shaft -
Corpus radii
Ellschaft - Corpus ulnae
Upper arm shaft -
Corpus humeri
Long spoke side
Hand straightener -
Extensor muscle
carpi radialis longus
Shorter spoke side
Hand straightener -
Extensor muscle
carpi radialis brevis
Long thumb spreader -
Abductor pollicis longus muscle
Short thumb stretcher -
M. extensor pollicis brevis
Long thumb stretcher -
M. extensor pollicis longus
Elbow - Olecranon
Knobby Muscle - M. anconeus
Elbow side hand extensor -
M. extensor carpi ulnaris
Finger extensor -
Extensor digitorum muscle
Little finger extensor -
M. extensor digiti minimi
Extensor tendon strap -
Retinaculum musculorum extensorum

You can find an overview of all Dr-Gumpert images at: medical illustrations

Golfer arm

The golfer's arm is also painful when objects are to be lifted or the forearm is rotated against a resistance.
In contrast to tennis elbow, however, other muscle groups are affected here, so that the pain does not get worse when stretching, but when bending the wrist.
If your symptoms match this better, you can find more information under our topic: Golfer arm

Supinatorlous syndrome

In supinatorlous syndrome, the pain is not due to overuse of the muscles, but rather to the pinching of a nerve in the area of the forearm.
This disease therefore requires a completely different therapy than tennis elbow.
If your symptoms match this better, you can find more information under our topic: Supinatorlous syndrome