Tennis elbow is caused by doing the same forceful arm movements over and over. It creates small, painful tears in the tendons in your elbow.
This injury can be caused by tennis, other racquet sports, and activities such as turning a wrench or chopping with a knife. The outside (lateral) elbow tendon is most commonly injured. The inside (medial) and backside (posterior) tendons can also be affected.
This article discusses surgery to repair tennis elbow.
Alternative Names
Lateral epicondylitis - surgery; Lateral tendinosis - surgery; Lateral tennis elbow - surgery
Description
Surgery to repair tennis elbow is usually an outpatient surgery. This means you will not stay in the hospital overnight.
You will be given medicine (sedative) to help you relax and make you sleepy. Numbing medicine (anesthesia) is given in your arm. This blocks pain during your surgery.
You may be awake during the surgery.
If you have open surgery, your surgeon will make one cut (incision) over your injured tendon. The unhealthy part of the tendon is scraped away. The surgeon may repair the tendon using something called a suture anchor. Or, it may be stitched to other tendons. When the surgery is over, the cut is closed with stitches.
Sometimes, tennis elbow surgery is done using an arthroscope. This is a thin tube with a tiny camera and light on the end. Before surgery, you will get the same medicines as in open surgery to make you relax and to block pain.
The surgeon makes 1 or 2 small cuts, and inserts the scope. The scope is attached to a video monitor. This helps your surgeon see inside the elbow area. The surgeon scrapes away the unhealthy part of the tendon.
