Comparison of effects of a home exercise programme and a supervised exercise programme for the management of lateral elbow tendinopathy
- 1 School of Physiotherapy, Lamia,Leeds Metropolitan University, Rheumatology and Rehabilitation Centre, Greece;
- 2 Rheumatology and Rehabilitation Centre, Greece;
- 3 Private Clinic, Ithaki, Greece
- Correspondence to: Stasinopoulos Dimitrios, Centre of Rheumatology and Rehabilitation, Greece/ Health and environement, Leeds Metropolitan Univ,, 20 Xinda street, Athens, 11141, Greece; d_stasinopoulos{at}yahoo.gr
- Received 28 April 2008
- Accepted 28 August 2008
- Published Online First 3 November 2009
Abstract
Background: Home and supervised exercise programmes consisted of stretching and eccentric exercises have been recommended for the management of lateral elbow tendinopathy (LET). No studies have examined their comparative efficacy effectiveness.
Objective: To investigate whether a home exercise programme is more successful than a supervised exercise programme in treating patients with LET.
Methods: Patients with unilateral LET for at least four weeks were included in this trial. They were sequentially allocated to receive five times a week for 12 weeks either a home exercise programme or a supervised exercise programme. The exercise programme consisted of slow progressive eccentric exercises of wrist extensors and static stretching of the extensor carpi radialis brevis tendon. Outcome measures were pain using a visual analogue scale and function using a visual analogue scale and the pain free grip strength. Patients were evaluated at baseline, at the end of treatment (week 12), and three months (week 24) after the end of treatment.
Results: Seventy patients met the inclusion criteria. At the end of treatment there was a decline in pain and a rise in function in both groups compared with baseline (p<0.0005, paired t test). There were significant differences in the reduction of pain and the improvement of function between the groups at the end of treatment and at the three month follow up and the supervised exercise programme produced the largest effect (p<0.0005, independent t test).
Conclusions: Supervised exercise programme is superior to home exercise programme to reduce pain and improve function in patients with LET at the end of the treatment and at the follow up. Further research is needed to confirm our results.
