Do you have pain on the inside of your elbow? You can then suffer from golfer’s elbow. At golfer’s elbow the tendon’s tissue on the inside of the elbow been overloaded, and the result is a sharp, shooting, stinging pain on the inside of the elbow.

Symptoms

At golfer’s elbow the pain is in the area around the elbow’s inside, sometime can the pain also beam /stråle/ downwards to the forearm and the hand. The pain gets often worse with active bending of the wrist.

Causes

In contrast to what the name indicates it’s relatively unusual that golf is the triggering factor for golfer’s elbow. Usually the cause is repeated movements and/or static load that result in overload of the forearm’s muscles or muscular attachments. The main reason for a golfer’s elbow can also come from problems in the shoulders or upper back.

Golfer’s elbow versus tennis elbow/mouse arm

Golfer’s elbow is in many ways the opposite of tennis elbow/mouse arm:

• at tennis elbow/mouse arm the pain is on the outside of the elbow
• at golfer’s elbow the pain is on the inside of the elbow 

Tennis elbow/mouse arm is the most common cause for pain in the elbow. Golfer’s elbow is more rare; it’s about one golfer’s elbow for every tenth tennis elbow/mouse arm.

Chronic

You shouldn’t go too long with pain. The risk for the condition to get chronic is large with tendon attachment pain like this. The prognosis for an acute golfer’s elbow is pretty good if you get treatment fast, but if it becomes chronic it will take much longer time to get rid of the injury.

Treatment and exercise/training

What combination of treatments and exercises that is effective towards a golfer’s elbow is affect by:

• the cause of the injury
• the origin of the pain/injury - where really it comes from
• how long the injury has proceeded
• what phase the injury is in

Because it is several factors that influence what is needed to recover from golfer’s elbow, it’s not possible to find one specific combination of treatment(s) and exercises/training that will be appropriate for everyone. The treatment(s) and exercise/training must therefore be adjusted to each patient.

Removal of load and rest

In special difficult cases the golfer’s elbow doesn’t get better regardless of what type of treatment(s) and exercise/training one tries. Actually will the (constant/repeatedly) treatment(s) makes the golfer’s elbow only worse. There are then only two things left; total rest and surgery. Completely removal of any load and rest helps several severe cases. Some tell that surgery has helped them, but it can be discussed how efficient it really is.