Cortisone Injection to Cure Tennis Elbow

Yes. And no.  There are a lot of collateral issues with cortisone injections that need to be taken into account.  If rest, icing, and NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatories) haven’t worked, the next step is to try cortisone injections.

A cortisone injection is a steroid injection right at the sight of the inflamed tendon in the elbow.  The body naturally produces cortisone in tiny amounts at the adrenal gland.  It, and the synthetic copy used for clinical treatments, brings down inflammation and reduces pain. The pain reduction is caused by bringing down the inflammation, so the cortisone actually helps with the root cause of tennis elbow.

 After a cortisone injection, the pain in your elbow should dramatically drop in the next few days.  A one to two week recovery period is recommended, after which a gradual rehabilitation program should be carried out.

One of the issues with the cortisone injection is that after 6-8 weeks, the beneficial effects of he cortisone begin to wear off.  The tendon inflammation will have gone down or vanished during that time, but if no corrections are made to your sports form and you do nothing for a long term solution, the condition may just come back (Levy, Sports Injury Handbook). 

Also, multiple cortisone injections can actually weaken the tendon, so this approach should not be tried more than 2-3 times at the most.  Further, some contention has arisen about whether or not just resting your elbow and not having the injection is just as good as the cortisone injection (1).

That being said, with the correction of your sports form and physical therapy to help deal with the root of the problem, a cortisone injection can help you effectively recover from tennis elbow.  If nothing else non-invasive is working, this is the next treatment to try.