Extrakorporeal shock wave therapy and kinezio taping technique the effectiveness evaluation in patients with lateral epicondylitis

In this study, randomization was performed by the sealed envelope methodology to evaluate effects of the extracorporeal shock wave therapy and kinesio taping on the lateral epicondylitis. The search was performed on 80 patients receiving a diagnosis of lateral epicondylitis (LE) at the physical therapy and rehabilitation unit of the Erenköy Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Hospital between the dates of November 2017 and January 2018. 52 of them is women and 28 of them is men and their average of age is 49,62. The patients were treated by randomly separating into two groups which are control (n=40) and study (n=40). All the patients within this study had been practiced physiotherapy (20 minutes hot pack, 20 mints TENS, and 3 mints ultrasound.) and ESWT two times each week. In addition to that, kinesio taping method was applied to the study group. Patients were evaluated in three different time periods; before, after, and two weeks after the treatment. The Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand survey (DASH), Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), SF-36 health survey, and grip strength measurement parameters was used for the evaluation. As a result, in the evaluations based on the before, after, and two weeks after the treatment analyses no significant differences were observed among groups, yet there was significant difference of VAS, grip strength, and DASH results of among the groups. In the grip strength measurements, the significant differences p<0,005 were also observed only the study groups' evaluation of the before and after the treatment comparisons. There was not any significant difference within the comparisons of the control groups' before and after the treatment. Any significant difference was not observed among groups' comparisons of the grip strength. Based on the SF-36 result, there was no significant difference among the groups' evaluations of the before and after the treatments, yet significant differences were observed with measurement within the groups only about general health and physical pain. KeyWords: lateral epicondylitis, ESWT, kinesio taping, physical therapy, VAS.