Hurts at the outer aspect of your elbow? Perhaps you have already known what you may suffer from just by googling your symptoms as “outer elbow pain”, which most likely results in web pages suggesting that you may suffer from tennis elbow.

 

However, outer elbow pain does not necessarily equal tennis elbow. There are loads of other possibilities that is a physiotherapist’s job to identify through proper history taking and physical assessments.

 

Today, we will discuss the possibilities of nerve injuries, specifically antebrachial cutaneous nerves.

Lateral epicondylitis is an overuse injury caused by eccentric overload at the origin of the common extensor tendon, leading to tendonitis and inflammation of the wrist extensor muscles. It is most commonly seen in individuals who play racquet sports like tennis or badminton. Diagnosis is made clinically with tenderness over the outer elbow made worse with resisted wrist extension.


 

Antebrachial cutaneous nerves provide sensory supply for the skin of the forearm. When there is an injury to these nerves, such as a pinched nerve or an entrapment, it is usually caused by trauma or muscle tightness. There are many factors causing muscle tightness, such as muscle adhesions, increased muscle tone due to weakness, muscle imbalances and so on. Your physiotherapist will do several nerve testing to check for sensation of the skin or nerve tension tests to identify nerve related issues.

 

Take away from this post, is that one cannot assume that outer elbow pain equals tennis elbow. Instead of misdiagnosing and prolonging pain, seek for a professional physiotherapist to get sorted out with proper physical assessment.

 

You may try some nerve gliding exercises to relieve nerve related pain:

1. Radial Nerve Gliding

3. Median Nerve Gliding