A Comparison of Laser and Extracorporeal Shock Wave Therapies in Treatment of Lateral Epicondylitis

Objective: Lateral epicondylitis (LE) is a common painful problem of the elbow.This study was conducted to evaluate and compare the effectiveness of extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) and lowintensity laser therapy in LE treatment. Material and Methods:The study included 60 LE patients.Subjects were divided into two groups randomly.Group 1 received ESWT, while group 2 received laser therapy.Presence of lateral epicondyle tenderness, elbow pain, and hand grip strength (HGS) were evaluated at the beginning and at 4 and 12 weeks.Elbow pain was evaluated with the Short-Form McGill pain questionnaire (SF-MPQ). Results:The patients with tender lateral epicondyle were not significantly different between groups at each time point.Both groups had improvement on HGS evaluated at the 4 th and 12 th weeks, but in the ESWT group, the improvement was significantly higher.All SF-MPQ parameters improved significantly after each therapy evaluated at the 4 th and 12 th weeks.However, mean visual analog scale, present pain intensity, affective pain subscale, and total pain scale scores were significantly lower in the ESWT group at the 4 th and 12 th weeks.Conclusion: Both ESWT and laser therapy are effective and safe treatment options for LE; however, ESWT seems to be more efficient in pain reduction and improvement of functions.