Commentary

Question: In patients with lateral epicondylitis, what is the effectiveness of a wait-and-see policy compared with that of physiotherapy or corticosteroid injections? Design: Randomized (allocation concealed), blinded (outcome assessors), controlled trial with 1-year follow-up. Setting: 5 research centers in The Netherlands. Patients: 185 patients (median age, 46 to 48 years [range, 18 to 70 years]) who had elbow pain and were referred by 85 family doctors. Inclusion criteria were pain on the lateral side of the elbow that increased with pressure on the lateral epicondyle and with resisted dorsiflexion of the wrist (with the elbow extended)*. Exclusion criteria were physiotherapy or corticosteroid injections for treatment of …