The Source / A field guide to feeling better
Arm & Elbow
Gripping, carrying and turning a handle ask a lot of the arm. Local tendon pain and nerve symptoms need different explanations.
Can you point to it?
Choose the closest area.
Select a point on the close-up, or choose below. You’ll find possible explanations, questions to bring to a visit, and the evidence behind the discussion.
Put the symptoms in context
Note whether pain stays near the elbow or travels, and whether tingling or weakness accompanies it. Work and sport loads are useful context, but should not replace an examination.
Follow the question
Explore arm & elbow
These guides describe possibilities, not a diagnosis. Each explains what to ask, where the evidence applies and when another kind of care is needed.
- Condition guide
Elbow tendinopathy
Pain with gripping or lifting, often called tennis elbow, and the evidence around treatment choices.
Understand this condition - Condition guide
Arm & leg pain
Local joint and muscle symptoms versus pain traveling along a nerve.
Understand this condition - Condition guide
Neck pain
Stiffness, referred pain and nerve symptoms: understand the questions an examination should answer.
Understand this condition
Gripping pain or traveling symptoms?
The elbow-tendinopathy guide focuses on pain around the outside of the elbow during gripping and lifting. The broader arm and leg pain guide explains why local joint symptoms and nerve-related pain need different evaluations.
Bring examples from your actual day: carrying groceries, using tools or holding a child. Note whether discomfort stays in one place, and whether weakness or tingling occurs. A work label or sports nickname should not substitute for a diagnosis.
Compare short-term relief with longer-term recovery
The elbow trial below followed participants for a year. It is a reminder to ask about recurrence and function as well as how a treatment feels immediately. Follow the elbow guide for the study's limits and questions to use when comparing options.
Follow the evidence
Research, with context.
Published sources behind the discussion. Read the findings alongside the limits; a study is not a diagnosis or a promise of a result.
Effect of corticosteroid injection, physiotherapy, or both on clinical outcomes in patients with unilateral lateral epicondylalgia: a randomized controlled trial
165 adults with lateral elbow pain lasting more than six weeks.
What it foundSteroid recipients had lower recovery and more recurrence at one year than placebo recipients. Physiotherapy did not significantly change one-year recovery or recurrence.
What it cannot tell usResults concern the studied approaches to persistent lateral elbow pain. They do not establish that chiropractic care is superior.
Publication details & citation
Coombes et al. Effect of corticosteroid injection, physiotherapy, or both on clinical outcomes in patients with unilateral lateral epicondylalgia: a randomized controlled trial. JAMA. 2013. DOI: 10.1001/jama.2013.129.
Read the publication record
Read our editorial policy for how sources and clinical review are identified.