Injuries from Video Games?

A few months ago I was playing tennis and when I hit the ball I felt a little jolt through my arm. It hurt. I continued to play and tried to shake it off. I play a couple times per week and pretty soon it started bothering me during and especially after I played. So I made the decision to take a break from tennis. During this time, I continued to type on my computer and do my normal life functions. Sometimes I bothered me more, but generally, it felt like it was slowly getting better. Two months later I decided I wanted to get back to a sport I really love (though frankly I’m pretty bad at – which is probably why my arm hurts). So I played on Saturday, then again yesterday and let me tell you…it’s REALLY hurting now.

So I decided to do some research. I doing so, I found that a common injury among athletic teens is tennis elbow. How coincidental! I’m so glad that my research might be helpful to a mother of a teenage boy.  Since the injury among teens affects kids who play football, tennis, and baseball or throw javelin, I seems to me that it is probably more troublesome to boys than girls; but that’s just my guess.

Incidentally, in a New York Times article about repetitive stress injuries caused by the Wii  playing a video game, can sometimes lead to injury. This article’s angle was that it's actually worse for your arms if you don't swing with the proper form. According to the article: "... a flick of the wrist is often enough to return a serve or bowl a strike. As several doctors pointed out, that is the exact motion - concentrating the force of a swing in the muscles of the forearm - that can cause tennis elbow."

Tennis elbow or a unilateral collateral ligament (UCL) tear is common in young athletes at any age. Supporting my previous statement that I’m a bad player, this injury seems to occur more in less-skilled players, suggesting that good technique and conditioning are important.

A tear in the UCL occurs when the strain of one pitch/throw becomes too much for the ligament to take. This doesn’t build up over time as other injuries do, but is an acute injury that happens all at once. Inflammation and pain in the muscles attached to the elbow is the result of the overuse. The injury is sore to the touch and hurts to grab or grip things. I’ve found it difficult to raise a heavy glass to take a drink.

Symptoms of tennis elbow are:

o Pain over the outside of the elbow

o Pain when lifting objects

o Pain radiating down the forearm

Most patients with tennis elbow are between the ages of 35 and 65 years old, and it affects about an equal number of men and women. Tennis elbow occurs in the dominant arm in about 75 percent of patients. Anyone can be affected, but tennis elbow is most commonly seen in athletes or manual laborers.

The treatment is first to can cut back on the activities that hurt and avoid repetitive activities. The area should be iced and Ibuprofen should be taken to reduce the inflammation. Depending in the severity, treatment might also involve surgical reconstruction. The UCL is removed and then replaced with a tendon from the wrist or a section of the hamstring. As the condition improves, doing wrist curls with increasing weight – palm down is recommended. Non-surgical treatment is successful in over 90 percent of patients.

Recovery will take several weeks to six months. Take it slowly. The use of a brace or tennis elbow strap to reduce the muscle pulling on the elbow is suggested. Physical therapy as well as ultrasound therapy have been said to help some people.

If you play tennis, suggested prevention is to use a two-handed back-stroke, which is not as hard on the body as a one-handed back-stroke.

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