This time we're going to talk about lateral epicondylitis and kinesio taping.
You may know it as tennis elbow, but it is also known as lateral epicondylitis (LE), which generally affects 1-3% of middle-aged people and is a common pathology of the elbow.
The exact etiology remains unknown, but the most accepted theory is that it is the result of a soft tissue inflammatory response to micro tears in the extensor tendons that attach to the lateral epicondyle.
Several treatment options for LE have been proposed.
Although there is no optimal treatment, the goals are usually to manage pain, maintain motion, improve grip strength, return to normal function, and control further clinical deterioration.
Recently, the use of kinesiotape (KT) has been proposed as a non-invasive treatment to restore normal function of muscles and joints, reduce pain, maintain normal tissue biomechanics, and restore tissue hemostasis.
The researchers aimed to evaluate the short-term effects of KT on pain, function, grip strength, and wrist extensor strength in patients with chronic LE.
The study
A total of 48 patients (32 females, 16 males, mean age 47.6 years, range 27-67 years) with chronic LE were
KT group (n = 27)
Sham group (n = 21)
Patients were randomly assigned to one of the following groups
Pain intensity by visual analogue scray (VAS), arm pain and function by PRTEE, grip strength by hand dynamometer, and wrist extensor strength by isokinetic device were assessed before and after treatment.
KT was followed by a 5-day intervention and this procedure was repeated three times.
It was observed that the pain and functional levels of chronic LE patients improved significantly in both the KT and sham groups, but there was no significant difference between the groups.
Tezel N, Can A, Karaahmet Ö, Gürçay E. The effects of kinesiotaping on wrist extensor strength using an isokinetic device in patients with chronic lateral epicondylitis: A randomized-controlled trial. Turk J Phys Med Rehabil. 2020;66(1):60-66. published 2020 Mar 3. doi:10.5606/tftrd.2020.3298
Conclusion and Summary
This study found that both KT and regular taping provided similar improvements in pain relief via arm function in chronic LE patients.
If there are any clinical limitations to this study, they are
The small sample size may have led to an underestimation of the evaluation.
The long-term effects are unknown because the taping was discontinued at the end of the intervention period.
The long-term effects are unknown.
However, since there was no difference in the results between KT with and without taping, one might think that it is okay to use taping in an appropriate way. The content of this article may make you think that if you use taping, you may as well apply it appropriately.
There are people who are clinically obsessed with taping, but I think that if you can apply it beautifully, you don't need to be so obsessed.
