The Clinical Report on 3 Cases of Lateral Epicondylitis Treated with Musculotendinous Releasing Manual Therapy after Acupuncture Treatment

Abstract

We researched 3 patients diagnosed as Lateral epicondylitis (Tennis elbow). We considered it as tendinosis including irregular collagen fiber's pattern. So, acupuncture therapy and musculotendinous releasing manual therapy were used to treat the patients. We measured their pain and functional disorder by visual analogue scale (VAS), Patient-Rated Tennis Elbow Evaluation (PRTEE), and a dynamometer before and after treatment. As a result, VAS and PRTEE significantly reduced and grasping power was also improved. Therefore, we conclude that the acupuncture therapy with musculotendinous releasing manual therapy is an effective way to treat Lateral epicondylitis. But there are limits on this study due to insufficient number of cases, absence of control group and absence of follow-up after last treatment. Further studies will be needed.

A Systematic Review of Acupuncture for Tennis Elbow

“…1). There were 9 RCTs [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] and 18 [25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42] case reports included in the review. The main characteristics of these studies was presented in tables (Tables 2 and 3).…”

“…The highest frequency of treatment sessions in case reports was 57 [38], and the lowest was 1 session [35,42]. The number of treatment sessions were varied amongst the 18 case reports [25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42].…”

“…In the case reports, the most used intervention was acupuncture which was used in 7 cases [25,27,33,36,38,40,42], followed by bee venom acupuncture which was used in 6 studies [28,29,33,37,38,40], burning acupuncture was used in 4 studies [29,31,32,34], and acupotomy [35], and thread embedding acupuncture were used in 1 study each [26]. In addition, there were many case reports in which combination therapy was used.…”

Research Trends in Pharmacopuncture Treatment for Lateral Epicondylitis

“…In Korean medicine, various treatments such as herbal medicines [8], acupuncture [9], fire acupuncture [10], electroacupuncture stimulation [11] and Chuna therapy [12] are selected as conservative treatments.…”

“…Pharmacopuncuture has the effect of controlling the meridians of the acupuncture treatment, and the treatment of conditions/ diseases through the pharmacological reaction of the medicines [13]. Kim et al [14] reported a case of bee venom treatment, Park et al [15] reported 2 cases of scolopendra pharmacopuncture as a treatment, Choi et al [16] reported a case of anti-inflammatory pharmacopuncture as a treatment, and Uhm et al [17] reported 4 cases of combined pharmaconpuncture treatment for lateral epicondylitis.…”