Making the call on elbow surgery

[Bill H Ross]

Hey All,

Maybe some of you can offer advice? Been dealing with chronic medial epicondylitis in my elbow for 2 years now. Surgeon has told me that I can go about my life, won't get worse, but won't get better either. It boils down to how long I can tolerate the pain. For Crossfit it seriously limits my pull ups and many other movements. It's also affecting other muscle groups on my left side like shoulder and back because they are compensating for the injured/weak elbow tendon. My left shoulder will be sore 2x longer than my right after a WOD for instance.

I'm not sure how to make the decision if I should have surgery on this thing. Doctor says it should make it better, but nothing is guaranteed. What if something goes wrong and I end up worse off?

Here's what the MRI results said in November 2009:

-moderate flexor tendinosis adjacent to the medial epicondyle.
-mild increased signal in the ulnar nerver along the posterior and proximal aspect of the medial epicondyle suggesting mild ulnar neuritis.
-medial subluxation of the nerve at the posterior superior margin of the medial epicondyle.
-mild triceps tendinosis adjacent to the olecranon.
-small abount of fluid in the elbow.

Would love to hear from anyone who has been through this or similar surgery.

Thanks in advance!

[Brent Sallee]

Have you gone through physical therapy at any point? It's much more moderate and PT tends to have pretty good results with tendinitis and tendinosis. I would definitely suggest that before surgery.

[Bill H Ross]

Originally Posted by Brent Sallee

Have you gone through physical therapy at any point? It's much more moderate and PT tends to have pretty good results with tendinitis and tendinosis. I would definitely suggest that before surgery.

Yes. When the injury first happened I did PT but honestly don't anymore. Where I went wrong was not letting the injury heal which led from tendonitis to tendonosis. I did a cortizone shot, then a blood platlette injection and neither had any affect. Surgeon said that nothing will bring it back (PT, Acupuncture, etc.) since the tendon needs to be reattached and scar tissue removed.

[Steven Low]

Did you try the eccentrics?

Nitric oxide patches have also had some support in the literature.

wfs
http://www.eatmoveimprove.com/2009/08/on-tendonitis/

Besides PRP/autologous blood injection there's also prolotherapy.