Tennis Elbow

The natural course of tennis elbow often involves gradual improvement over 1 to 2 years, but patients must endure pain and functional decline throughout that time, and some cases become chronic. This period can be significantly shortened with appropriate treatment. In relatively early cases within 3 months of onset, 4 to 8 weeks of intensive treatment often leads to improvement, while chronic cases lasting more than 6 months or those accompanied by tendon degeneration or partial rupture require a treatment period of 2 to 3 months or more. If you continue with heavy-duty work, such as logistics, the recovery curve becomes flatter; therefore, changing your lifting technique (palm-up, using both hands) and utilizing counterforce bands within feasible limits helps maintain the effectiveness of the treatment. In Korean medicine, the recovery of tendon injuries is a process in which liver blood nourishes the tendons; thus, there is a gap between the point at which pain subsides and the point at which the tendons become strong. This is why stopping treatment based solely on pain can result in a recurrence, as the condition of imbalanced muscle and veins remains. At Dongjedang, we monitor the condition of the tendons in stages using ultrasound and adjust the intensity of treatment accordingly. We tailor our approach to the tissue condition: initially, we relieve pain and stagnation of Qi and blood using acupuncture and pharmacopuncture; if adhesions are present, we separate them with needles; and if degeneration is deep, we promote regeneration using fire acupuncture and thread embedding. Simultaneously, we replenish the Qi and blood depleted by physical labor through internal treatment, compensating for the loss of recovery capacity caused by work. The criterion for ending treatment is not pain, but the recovery of the tendon's ability to withstand load, and this is a more important criterion for those who need to continue working.