Effectiveness of High-Intensity Laser Therapy Plus Ultrasound-Guided Peritendinous Hyaluronic Acid Compared to Therapeutic Exercise for Patients with Lateral Elbow Tendinopathy.
J Clin Med 2022;
11:jcm11195492. [PMID:
36233361 PMCID:
PMC9572841 DOI:
10.3390/jcm11195492]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/11/2022] [Revised: 09/08/2022] [Accepted: 09/16/2022] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Lateral elbow tendinopathy (LET) is a common painful musculoskeletal disorder. Several treatments have been proposed to provide pain reduction and functional recovery, including laser therapy, hyaluronic acid peritendinous injection (Hy-A), and therapeutic exercise (TE). Our study aims to assess the effectiveness of a combined approach with high-intensity laser therapy (HILT) and Hy-A injections compared to TE on pain, muscle strength, and disability in patients with painful LET. A retrospective longitudinal study was carried out by consulting the medical records of patients with a diagnosis of painful LET formulated by clinical and instrumental findings that received functional evaluations, including the Patient-Rated Tennis Elbow Evaluation (PRTEE) and muscle strength measurement at least four times: T0 (“baseline”), 1-month (T1), 3-month (T2), and 6-month follow-ups (T3). Medical records of 80 patients were analyzed. In the HILT + HyA group, the Peak-strength (p < 0.001) and mean strength (p < 0.001) significantly increased compared to the TE group between study times. For the PRTEE-total-score as for the subscales, the HILT + HyA group reported statistically significant reductions only for the comparisons of baseline versus T1 and baseline versus T2. No serious adverse events occurred. Our findings suggest that Hy-A associated with HILT might be more effective than TE for people with LET in the short−medium term.
Collapse