Tennis Elbow Symptoms & Diagnosis

The list of tennis elbow symptoms are unhelpfully broad.  They encompass any description of chronic pain around or associated with the elbow joint and/or forearm.  I find this to be an annoying way to diagnose tennis elbow, since there could be a variety of issues causing the elbow pain. 

Symptoms

However, there are a few tips for actually diagnosing tennis elbow from the other host of issues that it could be.  If you have any of these specific symptoms you should assume that your condition is tennis elbow:

• Chronic pain or tenderness in the elbow that improves when rested, specifically on the outside, bony part of the elbow joint.
• It is laborious to extend your arm fully, which may or may not cause you pain.
• The pain in your elbow and/or forearm increases when you have to grip and or turn objects (hold a mug of coffee, turn a doorknob, etc.).
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• Pain or soreness in your forearm.

If you hove any of the above symptoms, you probably have tennis elbow.  To be extra sure, you can perform this simple tests on yourself:

1. Holding your arm and elbow extended, flex your wrist forward and back, contracting your forearm muscles. If you experience your tennis elbow symptoms while doing this test, or feel pain on outside of your upper forearm, you have tennis elbow.

Cozen’s Test

Your doctor may do this test while either supporting or palpitating your lateral epicondyle (see picture) and flexing against resistance, known as the Cozen’s test.  This is s reliable test for tennis elbow, though for very painful cases doing your own wrist-flexing-test will probably tell you all you need to know.

I like knowing the reasoning behind things, so here’s why the above tests work.  Tennis elbow, medically known as lateral epicondylitis, is an inflammation of the lateral epicondyle tendon that attaches your forearm muscles to your elbow.  These muscles are responsible for your wrist and finger movement, so the repetitive action of gripping or taking impact through the wrist and forearm (like the impact of a ball on a tennis racket) strains the tendon that attaches the muscles to you elbow.

Which then causes the tennis elbow symptoms and pain!  I like to know why I’m in pain, since then I can do something about it.

Since this is just a problem with the inflammation of a single tendon, X-rays are not used to diagnose tennis elbow.  An MRI may show some fluid build-up is the elbow, but really the Cozen’s test is the best test around.

Of course, the muscles around your elbow could also just be hard and knotted from overwork since muscle knots (i.e. trigger points) can mimic the exact symptoms of tennis elbow.  Check it out after gathering all the info you need on your symptoms and diagnosis, just to be sure it isn’t a muscle problem masquerading as tendon inflammation problem.

If you still need more information on your symptoms and diagnosis, check out these pages.

• Golf and tennis elbow; What are the differences?
• Different kinds of elbow pain and what cause them.
• Tennis elbow pain in your forearm?
• Trigger point therapy treats elbow pain? Wow!