Should tennis elbow be cooled or warmed?
In acute cases of tennis elbow, it should be cooled to reduce the underlying inflammatory symptoms. This also relieves the pain. This can be done with the help of a cold compress (cool pack), wrapped in a kitchen towel or similar.
Alternatively, the elbow can be held under cold running water. When cooling, care should be taken to ensure that the ice never comes into direct contact with the skin and that it is never cooled for more than 20 to 30 minutes at a time. In the case of a chronic course, warmth is more suitable, for example in the form of a cherry pit cushion.
Irradiation of tennis elbow
If immobilization of the tennis elbow in combination with the other options of conservative treatment does not lead to any improvement, irradiation with X-rays can be attempted. This therapy is also called deep x-ray therapy, because the x-rays can also penetrate the deeper structures of the elbow joint. Meanwhile, this treatment method is covered by all health insurance companies and offers a healing chance of about 70%.
Very low individual doses of 0.5 Gray on average are used for the radiation with X-rays. The radiation is carried out two to three times a week over a period of a few weeks. However, whether the treatment of tennis elbow by radiation has been successful can only be assessed with a time delay.
This is due to the fact that the pain can become stronger at the beginning of the treatment and the full extent of healing is only achieved after two to three months. Radiation with X-rays triggers anti-inflammatory processes in the elbow joint and alters the immune response, thus preventing, for example, excessive new tissue formation. It is also suspected that the pain receptors are directly inhibited by the X-rays.Radiation with X-rays is almost free of side effects, but it should be remembered that every radiation exposure, just like every X-ray or every flight, means increased radiation exposure, which may increase the risk of tumors in the future.
Homeopathy attempts to cure diseases that occur with the smallest amounts of substances that would cause similar symptoms in large quantities (similarity rule). In this process, the individual symptoms and characteristics of the patient are also taken into account and finally a herbal agent is administered in potentiated form (i.e. highly diluted). The homeopath will prescribe an individual therapy for each patient with individual preparation of the globules.
Frequently used active ingredients for tendon stiffness are Causticum, which is obtained from burnt marble lime and potassium hydrogen sulphate, and Rhus toxicodendron, the oak-leaved poison sumac. Especially for the treatment of tennis elbow, the non-naturally occurring potassium bichromicum (potassium bichromate, a salt of dichromic acid) and symphytum (comfrey) are used. Arnica montana (arnica) is used by homeopaths in chronic tennis elbow to inhibit inflammation.
