Duloxetine in treatment of refractory chronic tennis elbow: two case reports.
BACKGROUND
Tennis elbow is a common musculoskeletal disorder; management options include physiotherapeutic, medical, surgical, and other forms of intervention. Some patients remain symptomatic despite best efforts. We present two patients who did not respond to medical and surgical treatments, and whose symptoms were relieved with duloxetine. This is the first report on the use of duloxetine to treat tennis elbow.


METHODS
Two mentally healthy young Asian women aged 32 and 27 years, each with tennis elbow of about 18 months duration continued to suffer pain despite treatment with analgesics, local steroid injections, physiotherapy, cryotherapy, ultrasound, and surgical release, among other interventions. Both showed substantial improvement within 4 to 6 weeks of receiving monotherapy with duloxetine 60 mg/day. Both were pain-free with continued treatment at a 6-month follow-up.


CONCLUSIONS
Duloxetine may be a useful treatment option in patients with chronic tennis elbow, even those who have failed conventional medical, physiotherapeutic, surgical, and other forms of management.
Wani
Zaid Ahmad
ZA
Department of Psychiatry, Government Psychiatric Diseases Hospital, GMC Srinagar, Kashmir, J&K, India. zaidwani@gmail.com
Dhar
Shabir Ahmad
SA
Butt
Mohammad Farooq
MF
Rather
Yasir Hassan
YH
Sheikh
Shano
S
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