Lions prevent tennis trauma with new methods

With tennis season starting up, all eyes are on men’s tennis senior co-captain Rajeev Deb-Sen—who has been successful in both singles and doubles with Columbia—to help lead the team to an Ivy title. But even a star player like Deb-Sen is susceptible to injury—and the most common injury for tennis players is lateral epicondylitis, appropriately called tennis elbow.

It is an overuse injury afflicting the muscles near the elbow that turn the palm upward and straighten the elbow. These muscles tend to be overused by the repetitive twisting of the forearm and elbow of the backhand swing—as well as in other activities such as carpentry or construction.

While it may seem unavoidable for a frequent tennis player to contract tennis elbow, athletes can minimize their risk with proper training and good movement. Having the wrong grip or using a racket that is too tightly strung can add to the risk of injury. Another important factor is training—insufficient training can lead to this injury since the muscles will not be strong or flexible enough to handle all the torque.

In addition to being preventable, tennis elbow is very treatable and few afflicted people require surgery. The trainers at Columbia use a wide range of treatments, according to Jim Gossett, the head athletic trainer for the Lions. These include a basic strap applied to reduce traction on the tendon and anti-inflammatory medications. They also use standard therapies like heat and ice and massage.

Gossett also employs newer methods such as platelet-rich plasma injections. PRP shots inject the patient’s own blood platelets at the site of injury. Tendons receive very little blood, making them slower to heal, and the presence of platelets attracts healing growth factors.

Deb-Sen is not currently burdened with tennis elbow, but did suffer from it recently. He acknowledges the importance of training and strength.

“I never had it again, which makes me believe that it might simply be an issue of strength in the arm,” Deb-Sen said. “I think the only way to get rid of it is to rest, and some strengthening issues might help too.”
Deb-Sen is right—since tennis elbow is an overuse injury, rest is essential to healing.
Most students aren’t frequently engaged in tennis, carpentry, or construction, but everyone at Columbia has spent a late night in Butler trying to finish a paper or project—and this makes you susceptible to mouse elbow. The constant gripping of a mouse can actually lead to overuse of similar muscles—so think about staying away from Butler’s ancient mouse-controlled computers if it’s going to be a late night.