Tennis elbow.

Tennis elbow, or pain on the lateral side of the elbow, is a common condition. We have seen 67 patients with tennis elbow in the past five years. Of these, 53 (79.1%) found relief from pain with conservative treatment, which usually consisted of one or more injections of local anesthetic and steroid. Fourteen patients (20.9%) required surgery to lengthen the radial wrist extensors, which gave relief from pain to 93% of them. The family physician can provide conservative treatment. Only resistant cases need referral to an orthopedic surgeon for corrective surgery or for more complicated surgery, which involves resecting the lateral epicondyle and freeing the attachment of the extensor muscles at the elbow.