Medial Epicondylitis
The cousin of Tennis Elbow, Golfer’s Elbow is the common name for Medial Epicondylitis.
The medial epicondyle is the bony projection on the inside surface of your elbow closest to your chest.
Pain arises when tiny tears develop in the muscles/tendons that connect to this bony bump.
Golfer’s Elbow can develop slowly over time or can have a fast onset.
Typically, Golfer’s Elbow becomes chronic when it has been present for longer than 6 months.
What does Golfer’s Elbow feel like?
Similar to Tennis Elbow, the symptoms of Golfer’s Elbow can resolve with rest from activities that aggravate the pain.
Some symptoms you may feel are:
Pain and tenderness directly over the medial epicondyle on the inner elbow
Pain when using your arm for activities, particularly those involving gripping and forced wrist/finger bending
Pain and/or stiffness to the muscles on the front of your forearm
Weakness of the forearm
Possibility of neck stiffness and tenderness
What causes Golfer’s Elbow?
Golfer’s Elbow occurs most typically as a result of overusing the forearm muscles responsible for gripping, rotating and flexing your forearm and wrist.
While it is prevalent in the golfing community, this injury is not limited to sports men and women.
It is a common condition in repetitive manual work, particularly if gripping and sustained wrist flexion is involved.
If Golfer’s Elbow is chronic, it is associated with more with degenerative changes in the muscle tissues at the medial epicondyle.
Due to poor tissue health, the tendon itself is not able to withstand the forces of everyday life therefore when we keep using it the damage can result in pain and inflammation.
Contrary to popular belief, chronic Golfer’s Elbow is not an inflammatory condition - therefore things such as Cortisone injections used to treat inflammation alone are not very effective in treating the underlying issue. They can be beneficial for providing pain relief in extreme cases.
What can you do to make it better?
The easiest steps you can take to help with the symptoms of Golfer’s Elbow is to rest the affected arm.
Along with rest you can add applying ice to the inside of the elbow and heat to the muscles on the front of your forearm.
Rest
Avoid lifting with your wrist flexed
Avoid bending your wrist forward or gripping for long periods of time
Apply ice to the sore spot on the elbow
Apply heat to the muscles in the forearm
Stretch the muscles in the forearm
Work with your hand therapist to figure out what is causing the condition in the first place and how to modify those activities
If you find that trying these does not remediate the problem you can contact a Hand Therapist to help you find out what is causing the condition.
A Hand Therapist can show you how to modify the way you perform activities or adapt your environment to help relieve symptoms.
If you do not figure out what caused the condition in the first place and work to modify how to do that particular task; the condition will return as soon as you go back to what you were doing that caused it in the first place.
We are very good at helping to figure out the causes and often look at videos of your daily activities or simulate these tasks in the clinic so that we can work with you to identify the causes.
After we know the causes we will work with you to figure out a practical way to modify the task so that the condition wont come back.