Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. E-mail: Outrequin gmail. In a given year, all patients who appeared at our institution with a diagnostic of CLE were screened for possible inclusion. Exclusion criteria were: confounding factors on pain and function of the upper limb, cognitive impairment, inability or unwilling to give informed consent or to comply with treatment protocol.
Our intervention consisted in applying a pressure from 0. Thirty patients were screened. Two were excluded for incomplete protocol, remaining 28 for analysis. Mean age was We had a significant reduction in VAS pain score at 12 weeks There were no side effects reported. Lateral epicondylalgia LE , also known as tennis elbow, is a tendinopathy taking place in the insertion of the extensor carpi radialis brevis ECRB , with one third of patients also having extensor digitorum communis EDC involvement [ 1 ].
This represents a public health issue in terms of work leave of absence, compensation and re-training. LE is an overuse condition, typically caused by repetitive micro traumatic events, resulting from elastic and eccentric loading required by various sports e. Histologic examination has failed to exhibit the classic features of inflammatory disease, but instead exhibits degenerative changes with a dense population of fibroblasts, vascular hyperplasia and disorganized collagen [ 6 ].
Numerous treatments have been proposed: Physical intervention [ 7 ], injections of corticoid or platelet rich plasma, immobilization [ 8 ], acupuncture, shock-wave therapy [ 9 , 10 ] and surgery. Manipulative therapies are a growing interest in conditions involving chronic pain, especially LE [ 11 , 12 ]. Deep transverse friction DTF , developed empirically by J. Cyriax [ 13 β 17 ] has shown good results. It technically should be referred to as a massage, hence should be precisely applied to the affected soft tissue structure.
Four tissues can benefit from DTF: the enthesis, the bulk of the tendon, the musculo-tendinous junction and the muscle belly.
