Taping around a tender tennis elbow can reduce pain from 4/10 to 2.2/10
Trauma Mon. 2013 Sep;18(2):71-4.
Effects of taping on pain, grip strength and wrist extension force in patients with tennis elbow.
Shamsoddini A, Hollisaz MT.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3860678/pdf/traumamon-18-71.pdf
- 30 cases average 6.4 weeks duration
- The diamond taping technique: 4 pieces, 80-100-mm (~ 3-4″)long, 3.8 cm (~1.5″) wide, non-elastic, adhesive tapes; applied in a diamond shape. “The strips overlapped at their ends and were secured with 4 additional tape strips.”
- Pains dropped from 4/10 to 2.2/10 within 5-10 minutes and grip strength improved
- Felt it was useful and subject should be able to apply tapes themselves
Comment – arm might need a shave and application of skin adhesive. Not sure I would use pink in my top tapes…
However came across another article:
Pain Res Treat. 2013;2013:353597.
The immediate effects of orthoses on pain in people with lateral epicondylalgia.
Sadeghi-Demneh E, Jafarian F
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3854508/pdf/PRT2013-353597.pdf
They found just wearing a tennis elbow band significantly dropped pain levels and their results were fairly immediate as well (levels were 4.1/10 versus 5.9/10 in placebo). This would maybe suggest a band might be nearly as effective. I am not aware of certain aspects of pain prior to treatment and how they handled the crossover aspects of their study so have written author…
Sadly in latter study, a wrist splint did not do very well (brought pain down to 5.3/10 versus 5.9/10 in placebo)…