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Does Kinesiotaping improve pain and functionality in patients with newly diagnosed lateral epicondylitis?

  • Sports Medicine
  • Published:
Knee Surgery, Sports Traumatology, Arthroscopy Aims and scope

Abstract

Purpose

This study aimed to compare the short-term effects of kinesiotaping and extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) along with physiotherapy on pain, functionality, and grip strength in patients with newly diagnosed lateral epicondylitis undergoing rehabilitation.

Methods

Forty-five voluntary patients (mean age 48 years) were randomly assigned to three groups. Patients in all groups received physiotherapy consisting of a cold pack and transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation five times per week for a total of 15 sessions and a home exercise programme including stretching and eccentric strength exercises. In the second group, patients received kinesiotaping 5 days a week for 3 weeks. In the third group, ESWT was applied three times for 3 weeks. Patients were assessed by visual analogue scale for pain intensity, pain-free grip strength using a hand dynamometer, Cyriax Resisted Muscle Test, and Patient-Rated Tennis Elbow Evaluation Scale. All measurements were collected at baseline and after treatment.

Results

There were no significant differences in the demographic characteristics of the patients in all groups at baseline. Intra-group analysis revealed that pain intensity decreased, whereas maximum grip strength and functionality increased in all groups at the end of the treatment (p < 0.05). Inter-group analysis revealed that the kinesiotaping group yielded better results in decreasing pain intensity than the other groups (p < 0.05). The kinesiotaping group (p < 0.001) and ESWT group (p = 0.002) yielded better results in improving functionality than the physiotherapy group. There were significant differences in recovering pain-free grip strength in the kinesiotaping group (p < 0.05).

Conclusion

Kinesiotaping was found to be effective for decreasing pain intensity, recovering grip strength, and improving functionality in patients with lateral epicondylitis undergoing rehabilitation.

Level of evidence

Therapeutic study, Level II.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation, Faculty of Health Sciences, Hacettepe University, 06100, Ankara, Turkey

    Leyla Eraslan & Gul Baltaci

  2. Department of Prevantative Oncology, Faculty of Medicine, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey

    Deniz Yuce

  3. Private Veni Vidi Hospital, Ankara, Turkey

    Arzu Erbilici

Authors
  1. Leyla Eraslan
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  2. Deniz Yuce
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  3. Arzu Erbilici
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  4. Gul Baltaci
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Contributions

LE conceived the idea for the study. All authors contributed to writing and reviewing the protocol, as well as reviewing and submitting the protocol for publication. DY provided advice with the statistical analysis and method design.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Leyla Eraslan.

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Conflict of interest

There are no financial or non-financial conflicts of interest.

Funding

No financial support was received from any organization.

Ethics approval

This article was provided by the Ethics Committee of Institutional Review Board University.

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Eraslan, L., Yuce, D., Erbilici, A. et al. Does Kinesiotaping improve pain and functionality in patients with newly diagnosed lateral epicondylitis?. Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc 26, 938–945 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00167-017-4691-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00167-017-4691-7

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