The Effects of Conservative Treatments on Pain, Function and Grip Strength among Patients with Tennis Elbow Syndrome: A Systematic Review

Conservative treatments for patients with tennis elbow syndrome include a set of nonsurgical methods to cure the inflammation of lateral epicondyle of humerus. The purpose of this article was to evaluate the effects of conservative treatments on pain, function and grip strength among patients with tennis elbow syndrome.

In an evidence-based systematic review and according to PICO (Patient, Intervention, Comparision, Out come) method, scientific databases including PubMed, ISI Web of Science and Scopus were searched for articles published during 2000 to 2017. Then titles and abstracts of the retrieved articles were reviewed and intervened according to the including criteria.

Among 76 preliminary articles, 18 articles had the including criteria. 15 articles included physiotherapy methods and 3 articles included splints. 4 articles were about laser, 4 articles about shockwave therapy, 2 articles about acupuncture, 3 articles about combined conservative treatment methods, 3 articles about braces, 1 article was about transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) and 1 article about taping.

All treatment modalities are effective to cure tennis elbow. Combined methods are more preferable in comparison with single method treatments. There is no report of definite preference among different treatments. There were no mentions of side effects in any of the articles.