Local steroid injection for treatment of lateral epicondylitis

Background: Lateral Epicondylitis also termed as Tennis elbow is one of the common presentation for elbow pain. It is often idiopathic but it may be due to excessive use of muscles of the back of forearm. The clinical examination is the main stream for the diagnosis of lateral epicondylitis. Radiological evaluation is not necessary or helpful for diagnosis. This study is to compare the short term outcome of local steroid injection with local NSAIDs and oral NSAIDs in compare with Local NSAIDs and oral NSAIDs only. Materials and Methods: This is a randomized control trial. The study was conducted at Out-Patients Department at Orthopedics department at Janaki Medical College and Teaching Hospital, Janakpurdham, Nepal. The cases were studied in between February 2024 to February 2025. Evaluation of patients were made on at the first visit of the study, second after 2 weeks and third one on 6 weeks. A blinded assessor rated the elbow complaints of the patients using VAS scoring System. All together 120 patients were included in our research. Each group I and II consists of 60 cases each. Results: Our study gives very good results in short term follow up as 2 weeks and 6 weeks in patients provided with local steroid injection in association with Local NSAIDs and oral NSAIDs. Conclusion: This is a short term study showing good result on pain relief and function at 6 weeks in group I rather than in group II. Applying local steroid injection has benefit in early relief from pain.