Do you get tennis elbow when you play tennis?

Tennis elbow refers to lateral epicondylitis of humerus, pain caused by repeated varus force, mainly refers to lateral tenderness of elbow joint. It is named because it often happens to tennis players, and it may also happen to other players or people of other professions. In fact, when exercising or working, forearms and wrists are used too much and the intensity is too great, which is easy to happen. There are many pathogenic factors of tennis elbow, but it is generally believed that it is due to the long-term repeated and severe contraction and traction of forearm extensor muscle, which causes acute or chronic cumulative injury in different degrees at the attachment of these tendons, tearing, bleeding, muscle fiber organization and adhesion, forming aseptic inflammatory reaction. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that this disease is caused by strain of qi and blood and disharmony of tendons and veins. In tennis, elbow flexion and extension activities are more intense, and there are more chances of injury. At first, foreign doctors called it tennis elbow because they saw that this disease was more common in tennis players. In fact, tennis elbow can be induced not only by playing tennis, badminton and table tennis, but also by doing a lot of elbow activities, such as haircut, repairing machinery, operating computers, transplanting rice, washing clothes by hand, cooking and so on. Some people who don't have much elbow movement will also get sick because of local injuries or colds. Middle-aged and elderly people often cannot recover quickly after injury due to degeneration and aging of tendon fibers, and the incidence rate is high. Therefore, tennis elbow is not a "patent" of tennis, let alone an occupational disease of tennis players. The human elbow joint consists of the humerus of the upper arm and the ulna and radius of the forearm. There is a bony process on the medial and lateral sides of the lower humerus, which is located under the skin and easy to touch, and is called medial epicondyle and lateral epicondyle respectively. The medial epicondyle is the main starting point of forearm flexor and the lateral epicondyle is the main starting point of forearm extensor. When these muscles contract, they cooperate with each other to complete the flexion and extension of the elbow joint. If the passive traction (such as fist-clenching and wrist-bending) and active contraction (such as wrist-stretching) of forearm extensor exceed the tolerance limit, the starting point of lateral epicondyle of humerus can be torn to varying degrees, causing inflammatory changes such as bleeding, edema and adhesion. Inflammation stimulates nerve endings and people feel pain. This disease is medically called lateral epicondylitis of humerus. During the examination, it can be found that there is no redness and swelling on the joint surface. When the finger presses near the lateral epicondyle of humerus, the patient will feel pain immediately. Tennis elbow is mainly characterized by persistent pain in elbow joint, which affects activities, especially when straightening elbow joint or rotating forearm, sometimes the pain will spread to forearm, affecting work and life. If it is serious, doing simple housework, such as twisting towels and sweeping the floor, will hurt too much. After suffering from tennis elbow, the sick arm should rest properly to avoid excessive activity. Blockage is the most common treatment. Blocking is to mix a small amount of novocaine or lidocaine with triamcinolone acetonide or other similar drugs and inject them into the painful part to alleviate or eliminate the pain and inflammation of patients. If it is not cured, it can be injected again. Continuous injection, generally no more than 3 times. Other methods such as hot compress, physical therapy, sticking and massage are also effective. When these methods are used together, the effect will be better and the general patients can be cured. However, in order to consolidate the therapeutic effect, patients need to reduce elbow joint activity and elbow joint activity. If the patient is treated with the above methods, the symptoms still cannot be alleviated, and surgical treatment is feasible. The common method is to peel and release the extensor carpi generalis tendon. This operation method is simple, less dangerous and effective. Before people do sports, they should be fully prepared. People who have less physical activity for a long time should pay attention to avoid sudden and excessive elbow joint activity. Middle-aged and elderly people who engage in repeated elbow flexion and extension should pay attention to the combination of work and rest and moderately carry out targeted exercise. After the patient is cured, it is still necessary to prevent the elbow from catching cold and avoid overwork, so as to avoid recurrence. Through the above introduction, I hope everyone can know something about tennis elbow and take precautions while exercising.