Management of
Those Pesky Chronic Painful Tendon Problems; A Look at one of the Newer
Approaches
Jackins SE: University of
Some of my most challenging
patients are those with chronic tendon-related conditions, such as tennis elbow
and shoulder tendonitis. In my experience, there is no one single treatment that
manages these conditions well and I always have my radar up for new modalities
or treatment techniques to assist in managing these conditions. I recently
became aware of a soft tissue technique that uses “tools.” As I looked into
this, even taking a course, I found that there are actually a number of sets of
“tools” or “instruments” made by several companies, reflecting the
philosophy and methods of those in each company.
This case presentation is of 2
cases, in which these “tools” were utilized – one with chronic shoulder
pain and the other with tennis elbow/lateral epicondylitis. It includes the
information I learned about these tools – history (some of which appears to go
way back), applications, and available research.
Each of the patients had had
multiple types of therapy in the past – from other therapists in the
community, as well as from myself. In both of these cases, the addition of the
use of these tools appeared to make a significant, and positive, difference.
Measures taken were particularly related to pain, using a pain scale for current
level of pain and level of worst pain in past 24 hours. Changes were also
recorded for range of motion, activity type, and activity level at several
points in the process.
We are all interested in
getting our patients better faster. There are many products in, or on the edge
of, the physical and occupational therapy marketplace. Some of these include
lasers, other types of rays, types of ointments, heating modalities, new types
of ultrasound, new types of iontophoresis, taping types and techniques. These
tools are another technique that may be helpful to add as an option.