Steroid injection therapy is the best conservative treatment for lateral epicondylitis: a prospective randomised controlled trial
Four articles on PainSci cite Tonks 2007: 1. The Complete Guide to IT Band Syndrome 2. Shin Splints Treatment, The Complete Guide 3. Tennis Elbow Guide 4. Repetitive Strain Injuries Tutorial
PainSci notes on Tonks 2007:
“On the basis of the results of this study, the authors advocate steroid injection alone as the first line of treatment for patients presenting with tennis elbow demanding a quick return to daily activities.”
original abstract †Abstracts here may not perfectly match originals, for a variety of technical and practical reasons. Some abstacts are truncated for my purposes here, if they are particularly long-winded and unhelpful. I occasionally add clarifying notes. And I make some minor corrections.
The relative merits of a watch and wait policy, physiotherapy alone, steroid injection therapy alone, and physiotherapy and steroid injection therapy combined, for the treatment of tennis elbow, were assessed using a prospective randomised controlled trial (RCT) of factorial design. Although RCTs comparing different treatment strategies for tennis elbow have previously been published, to our knowledge none of the previous studies have combined the modalities of physiotherapy and steroid injection as one of the treatment groups, as we have done in this study. Patients who received steroid injection were statistically significantly better for all outcome measures at follow up. No statistically significant effect of physiotherapy nor interaction between physiotherapy and injection was found. On the basis of the results of this study, the authors advocate steroid injection alone as the first line of treatment for patients presenting with tennis elbow demanding a quick return to daily activities.
This page is part of the PainScience BIBLIOGRAPHY, which contains plain language summaries of thousands of scientific papers & others sources. It’s like a highly specialized blog. A few highlights:
- A double-blinded randomised controlled study of the value of sequential intravenous and oral magnesium therapy in patients with chronic low back pain with a neuropathic component. Yousef 2013 Anaesthesia.
- Is Neck Posture Subgroup in Late Adolescence a Risk Factor for Persistent Neck Pain in Young Adults? A Prospective Study. Richards 2021 Phys Ther.
- Photobiomodulation therapy is not better than placebo in patients with chronic nonspecific low back pain: a randomised placebo-controlled trial. Guimarães 2021 Pain.
- No effect of creatine monohydrate supplementation on inflammatory and cartilage degradation biomarkers in individuals with knee osteoarthritis. Cornish 2018 Nutr Res.
- The CANBACK trial: a randomised, controlled clinical trial of oral cannabidiol for people presenting to the emergency department with acute low back pain. Bebee 2021 Med J Aust.