Updated September 11, 2014.

Definition: Tennis elbow, also called lateral epicondylitis, is the most common cause for patients to seek a doctor's help for the complaint of elbow pain.  There are many treatments available for tennis elbow.

Tennis elbow is caused by microscopic tears of the tendons that attach the muscles of the forearm to the arm bone at the elbow joint. The muscle group involved in tennis elbow, the wrist extensors, function to pull the wrist back.

Patients with the tennis elbow syndrome experience pain on the outside of the elbow that is worsened by grasping objects and pulling back the wrist.

Also Known As: Lateral epicondylitis