Abstract

Objective this study was done to assess the therapeutic efficacy of forearm support band and wrist splint in minimizing severity of pain and improving hand grip strength with lateral epicondylitis cases, and determine which one of these two common splints is more effective to reduce pain intensity and improve grip strength.

Method: Thirty male and female patients with tennis elbow were selected from orthopedic Department at National instate of neurolocomotor system. All patients were randomly assigned into two groups. The group (A) (n = 15, mean age: 44.8 ± 6.87 years) received forearm support band for four weeks, while the group (B) (n = 15, mean age: 42.86 ± 6.34 years) received wrist splint. All patients received exercises (12 sessions, 3 sessions per week) over a four weeks period. They were evaluated using visual analog scale to determine the pain intensity, and handheld dynamometer to determine hand grip strength in both groups.

Results: The results of the current study revealed that forearm support band or wrist splint combination with exercises for four weeks in patients with tennis elbow resulted in significant increase in hand grip strength in the post-treatment, associated with a significant decrease in pain intensity in the post-treatment in both groups. In addition, it revealed that there was significant difference between forearm support and wrist splint as regard to pain reduction which wrist splint allows a greater degree of pain relief than the forearm support band for patients with lateral epicondylitis, while there was no difference as regard to grip strength improvement between both groups.

Conclusion: It was concluded that forearm support band or wrist splint (cock-up splint) combined with exercises were effective in improving pain intensity and increasing hand grip strength in patient with tennis elbow, and wrist splint allows a greater degree of pain relief than the forearm support band.

Keywords: Lateral Epicondylitis; Exercises; Forearm Support Band; Wrist Splint

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Citation

Citation: Hamza M Shaheen., et al. “Forearm Support Band Versus Wrist Splint in Treatment of Lateral Epicondylitis". Acta Scientific Orthopaedics 3.8 (2020): 51-68.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2020 Hamza M Shaheen., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.