Clinical Analysis of Tennis Elbow - 148 Cases -

One hundred and forty-eight cases of tennis elbow were treated by conservative managements firstly such as rest, medication, immobilization, physical therapy and local steroid injection, from Jan. 1985 to Jun. 1994 at Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, National Medical Center. Among the 148 cases, 16 cases who failed conservative managements, were treated with Nirschl & Pettrone operation. The results were summarized as follows, 1. Among the 148 cases, 110 cases$(74\%)$ were female, and 61 cases$(41.2\%)$ were in the age group 41 to 50, and mean age was 42.3 2. Ninety-nine cases were housewives and only 15 cases were related to sports. 3. The results 116cases$(78\%)$, of conservative treatment were excellent and good 10 fair and failure in 32 cases$(22\%)$, by Nirschl and Peettrone assessment. 4. Among the 16 cases who were treated with Nirschl and Pettrone operation, excellent result was obtained 10 7cases, good in 3 cases, fair in 4cases and failure in 2 cases. 5. Recurrence was developed in 18 cases$(12.2\%)$, and we obtained excellent & good result in 17 cases with both conservative and operative treatment. Above results suggest that the term, tennis elbow is a misnomer because it occurs more commonly in non-athletes such as housewives than in tennis players. So it seems to be a occupational disease rather than sports injury. Now, we propose eliminate of the term, elbow and substitute with terminology that described the true understanding and therapeutic orientation of it.