Steroids Blog

A group of Australian researchers proved that steroid injections are apparently of no use in tennis elbow and a wait and watch approach may be the best. The researchers tested this approach on a group of volunteers, while a second group was given a local corticosteroid injection and advised to gradually return to normal activities. The final group received eight treatments of physiotherapy of 30 minutes over six weeks and was taught home exercises and self-manipulation. Each group’s progress was measured at six weeks, and again after a year.

From Bio-Medicine:

Steroid injections are apparently of no use in tennis elbow and a wait and watch approach may be the best, a new study in the BMJ says. Australian researchers tested this approach in one group of volunteers, who were assured that their problem would be sorted out.

Initially, corticosteroid injections were the most successful treatment, with 78% of those in the group reporting improvements, followed closely by physiotherapy with a 65% success rate when compared to just 27% in the ‘wait and see’ group.

However, after 52 weeks the injection group rates of improvement were significantly worse than those of the physiotherapy group. The injection group also had the most reported recurrences, with 72% of participants’ condition deteriorating after three or six weeks – which could be due, in part, to a quicker initial recovery leading to greater use and over-taxing of the elbow.

The study findings also support the idea that tennis elbow is, in most cases, a self-limiting condition.

The study showed that the injection group also had the most reported recurrences, with 72% of participants’ condition deteriorating after three or six weeks. At the end of the study participants in both the physiotherapy and wait and see group had either much improvement or completely recovered from their condition.