Wrist tendonitis: symptom, exercises, and treatment
Wrist tendonitis
Commonly known as tennis elbow or backhand tennis elbow in lay man words wrist tendonitis is a common disorder that has affected a lot of athletes over the years. Tendonitis can be defined as inflammation of the tendon and the synovial sheath that is surrounding that. The inflammation is more severe in the sheath which surrounds the tendon rather than the tendon itself. The reason for such destructive reaction in the tendon sheath is still largely unknown. There is however several theorise put forward and most of them believe the cause is multifactorial. The disorder is mostly seen in athletes and people who are in middle age or in their old age. The reason why this occurs in middle or old age people is explained by loss of vascularise to the tendon itself. Due to aging the vascular condition of the tendon and the sheath deteriorates over time. In athletes repeated trauma is thought be the important cause for inflammatory reaction.
In wrist tendonitis mostly seen in the athletic people overuse of wrist results in a unusual level of stress over extensor Carpi radialis brevis and longus which act as grasping muscles supinator longus and brevis which act as supination musle of the forearm. All this muscles originate from the lateral epicondyle of the elbow. The important symptom of wrist tendonitis is pain. Pain first starts appearing when the person tries to do activities such as manual screw driving here his extensor tendon is used against any resistance. With continued stress the pain starts appearing even when the patient is resting. The inflammatory reaction proceeds further resulting in the hemorrhage in the subperiosteal space, periostitis, and calcium deposition in the sheath of the tendon and spur formation usually more pronounced in the lateral epicondyle. In the condition of tennis elbow the action during a backhand return involves extension of the wrist and the forearm where there is a continuous stress built upon the extensor Carpi radialis brevis which are the extensor tendons thus resulting in pain in the lateral aspect of the forearm. Other factors which are known to contribute to this effect include poor technique and week shoulder and sometimes even muscles which are week.
Signs and symptoms include pain which is more pronounced in the lateral epicondyle of the forearm which is more pronounced when the patient tries to hit a backhand shot. If there is continued stress put then the player might experience the same pain even while resting thus debilitating them. Upon examination when the patient is asked to raise the wrist against t resistance pain will be pronounced and on X-rays one can see the calcification and hemorrhage.Treatment involves physiotherapy where the main aim is to try strengthening the weekend muscles. Wrist extensors are aimed at and exercises are done in a way not to put stress on tendons. Other ways to treat tennis elbow involves application of ice packs on the lateral epicondyle stretching the muscle. If there is pronounced changes then surgical treatment to correct the inflamed wrist has been adopted which seems to provide a long form of cure.
