Prognosis | What is a golf elbow?

Prognosis

The prognosis can be described as good, since most patients with disease of the golfer’s elbow can be cured conservatively, i.e. without surgery.However, it is possible that the disease occurs over a long period of time and under certain circumstances can only be cured with surgery. In rare cases, surgery may not provide lasting relief from the pain. The golf elbow golf elbow often occurs with tennis elbow.

Exercises

For the healing of the golfer’s arm, it is helpful if the patient performs regular exercises. It is important that patience is not lost if the desired goal is not achieved immediately. The effect unfolds only with time and can only occur if the exercises have been performed consistently in regularity and duration.

Stretching exercises: On the one hand it is important to stretch the muscles of the forearm. To do this, you stretch the affected arm at the elbow, now overstretch the wrist and pull it further into the extension with the other hand. The flexor muscles are stretched, and a slight pulling motion is produced on the underside of the forearm.

The extensor muscles can be stretched by bending the wrist as much as possible and then pressing it lightly with the other hand. The arm must also be stretched for this exercise. The stretching exercises should be performed for about 30 seconds and repeated three times per exercise unit.

Ideally, the exercises should be performed at least once a day, or even better several times a day. Once the inflammation and pain have subsided somewhat, it is time to strengthen the forearm muscles, as this prevents further over-stimulation. The training should be done with a low weight load and a high number of repetitions (20-30).

A simple form of exercise is to take a 0.5 l PET bottle in your hand and place your forearm on a table so that your hand is held in the air above the edge of the table. Now the bottle is to be raised and lowered by stretching and bending the wrist. The exercise should be performed in two ways, one time the arm should be held with the back of the hand pointing upwards, another time with the palm of the hand pointing upwards.

This is the only way to ensure that both muscle groups, extensor and flexor, are trained. This exercise should also be performed three times per unit with a repetition rate of 20-30. The golfer’s elbow is a localized inflammation in the area of the flexor muscles of the forearm and hand.

From a medical point of view it is a so-called epicondylitis (humeri medialis). On the one hand, it belongs to the insertion tendopathies (= disease of the tendons, tendon sheaths and ligaments), on the other hand, it also belongs to the myotendinoses (disease of the unit muscle = myo and tendon = tendo). Consequently, epicondylitis (humeri medialis) is a disease of the tendons and ligaments, involving the adjacent muscles.

Tendopathies (= tendon inflammations) can, under certain circumstances, cause painful changes in tendons in the area of a muscle origin, muscle, ligament or capsule attachment. A tendopathy can therefore occur almost throughout the entire body. In the case of the golfer’s elbow, characteristic pain occurs as a result of overstraining the muscles, which can greatly restrict the usability of the affected arm.

The golfer’s elbow, epicondylitis humeri medialis, occurs in both men and women, most frequently in middle age. The golfer’s elbow can be treated both conservatively and surgically. As a rule, one first tries to treat the disease pattern conservatively.

This implies treatment methods such as: immobilization, electromechanical stimulation, cortisone injections, ointment dressings and extracorporeal shock wave therapy. If the conservative measures do not work, surgery may become necessary. This implies a loosening of the muscles required for stretching the arm (= “forearm extensor”).

The golfer’s arm over-stimulates the forearm flexor muscles and is accompanied by pain in the arm. There are numerous methods of treatment, whereby the independent practice of the patient plays an important role in the therapy. An operation should only be decided upon in exceptional cases and in the case of severe, protracted courses.