Test for Suspected Lateral Epicondylitis – ‘Tennis Elbow’
Procedure
- Ask the patient to extend the third finger against your resistance [Figure 97].
- Pay attention to the occurrence of pain at the level of the lateral epicondyle of the arm in question.
Other finger extensors often cause less pain when tensed against resistance. This is because the muscle fibre bundles that originate from the third finger, are attached most proximally and are also attached to the inter-muscular septum of the extensor digitorum muscle and the extensor carpi radialis brevis muscle at the level of the radial head and the lateral epicondyle.
Figure 97