Local Corticosteroid Injection Versus Dry Needling in the Treatment of Lateral Epicondylitis

Background Lateral epicondylitis (LE) is an inflammation or micro-tearing of the tendons that join the forearm muscles on the lateral aspect of the elbow. Primary treatment of LE includes rest from offending activity and corticosteroid therapy for pain control. Dry needling (DN) is a relatively new therapy for LE. This study examined the results of DN therapy with corticosteroid injection. We aimed to compare pain relief and improvements in functional disability of LE patients treated via DN and corticosteroid injection in a tertiary care center. Methodology A prospective randomized control study was conducted among 54 patients in the Orthopaedics Department of R L Jalappa Hospital from January 2022 to May 2022. Patients received either DN or injectable corticosteroid therapy, and treatment groups were randomized using single-blinded randomization with sealed envelopes. Patients were evaluated using the Patient-Related Tennis Elbow Evaluation (PRTEE) score before the intervention and four and eight weeks after the intervention. Results A total of 54 patients were included in the final analysis. The mean age in the DN group was 43.96 ± 8.15 years and 44.74 ± 8.33 years in the corticosteroid group. In the DN group, 17 (62.96%) patients were male, and in the corticosteroid group, 16 (59.26%) patients were male. The differences in the PRTEE score at the fourth and eighth-week follow-up with baseline value (pre-injection) were statistically significant (p < 0.001). Conclusions DN is a low-cost, minimally invasive, and low-risk therapy whereas corticosteroid therapy is costly and produces systemic side effects in the long term. In this study, during the last follow-up visit, the PRTEE score improved in the DN group compared to the corticosteroid group.