Rajeev Kumar Roy1, Mahesh Prasad2
BACKGROUND
Chronic painful tendon disorders are common in both sport persons and common individuals.1,2 Lateral epicondylitis (tennis elbow) is relatively more common among active individuals in the general population.3 Typical signs and symptoms include pain and tenderness over the lateral epicondyle, exacerbated by resisted wrist extension and passive wrist flexion and impaired grip strength.
The aim of the study is to find whether autologous blood provides comparable functional outcome over local steroids and hence whether it can replace steroids in treatment of tennis elbow.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Patients with nontraumatic elbow pain attending the Orthopaedics Outpatient Department of Nalanda Medical College Hospital from January 2016 to August 2016. The participating subjects were randomly grouped into two groups (steroid (Group A) and autologous blood (Group B)). Pain in the subject’s affected elbow was measured using Visual Analogue Score (VAS).
RESULTS
Initially, both the groups had comparable initial VAS scores. At 1 month follow up, steroid group showed a significantly greater improvement in mean VAS scores when compared to autologous blood group. However, at 6 months follow up, steroid group showed no statistically significant difference in mean VAS scores when compared to autologous blood group.
CONCLUSION
From the current study, we concluded that both local corticosteroid and autologous blood were equally efficacious in the treatment of chronic lateral epicondylitis of elbow.
