Golfer's Elbow

What is Golfer’s Elbow?

Golfer’s elbow, known clinically as medial epicondylitis, is a condition of the flexor tendons where they attach to the inner side of the elbow. It is the mirror image of tennis elbow, which affects the outer elbow. Despite the name, most people who get it have never played golf.

It develops from repetitive gripping, wrist flexion, and forearm rotation. Plumbers, carpenters, painters, and racket sport players are all prone to it. The underlying problem is tendinosis, degeneration in the tendon tissue itself, rather than acute inflammation, which is why it can be stubborn and why anti-inflammatories alone often fail.

The pain sits over the bony bump on the inner elbow and can radiate down the forearm. Some people also notice tingling into the ring and little fingers. Ultrasound confirms the diagnosis by showing degenerative change in the flexor tendon.

Symptoms

• Pain and tenderness over the inner elbow
• Pain that worsens with gripping or flexing the wrist
• Pain radiating down the inner forearm
• Weakness in grip strength
• Tingling or numbness into the ring and little fingers
• Stiffness in the elbow, often worse in the morning

How We Treat It

We favour PRP therapy as the primary interventional option. It concentrates your own platelets and growth factors at the site of tendon degeneration to stimulate real tissue repair, which is what the tendon needs to recover. We deliver it under ultrasound guidance so the injection reaches the degenerative zone precisely, with results developing over four to eight weeks as the tissue remodels.

Shockwave therapy is a non-injection alternative that delivers focused acoustic energy to the tendon, stimulating the same healing response without needles. For patients with severe acute pain, a single ultrasound-guided steroid injection can settle symptoms enough to begin rehabilitation, though it does not address the underlying tendinosis. We pair all of these with eccentric loading exercises under physiotherapy supervision, which is the element that most consistently improves long-term outcomes.