The effectiveness of different frequencies physiotherapy program on patients with lateral epicondylitis

Purpose: To apply in different frequencies physiotherapy program on patients with lateral epicondylitis (LE) and compare the effectiveness of physiotherapy programs on pain severity, manually pain provacative test, hand-pinch grip strength, functional outcomes. Methods: Patients were randomly separated into one session per week (n=12), 3 session per week (n=9) and 5 sessions per week (n=12) groups. Patients? pain severity, manually pain provacative tests, hand-pinch grip strength and functional outcome (Disabilities of Arm- Shoulder-Hand Index) were evaluated at first, 4th, 6th and 8th weeks.The patients, taking physiotherapy on 3 and 5 sessions per week was applied US and progressive resistive strengthening and stretching exercises and activity modifications was tought to all patients and applying a forearm support band was advised. Results: There was no statistically significance between hand-pinch grip strenght and pain severity of groups (p>0.05). It was determined significant difference between groups on 4th and 8th week DASH-symptom scores and 8th week DASH-work scores (p<0.05). Regarding to comparison of groups as 1-3 sessions, 1-5 sessions and 3-5 sessions per week, it was determined no significant difference on DASH scores of first, 4th and 6th week (p>0.01), and a significant difference for DASH-W between groups of 1-5 sessions on 8th week and for DASH-FS scores between groups of 1-3 sessions per week (p<0.01). There was no statistically significant difference for hand-pinch grip strength, visual analog scale between groups of 1-5, 1-3 and 3-5 sessions per week (p>0.01). Conclusion: It was determined any difference of session frequencies on severity, hand and pinch grip strength with well planned, supervised physiotherapy programmes on lateral epicondylitis but it was established some parametres of functional status were affected. It was found that patient education, activity modification and physiotherapy are effective on treatment of LE.