Use of the Forearm Support Band for Tennis Players Examined by Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Abstract

There are tennis players who feel some pain of their proximal forearm. The symptom is called “tennis elbow”. It is thought that the extensor carpi radialis brevis muscle (ECRB) is related to the mechanism of the tennis elbow and the forearm support band is effective to the tennis elbow. Then we examined whether ECRB was related to the pain when swinging the racket and hitting the ball or not, using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). ECRB got high signal intensity in the image due to their muscle edema. Next we examined if the forearm support band was effective in which swinging the racket (concentric contraction of ECRB) or hitting the ball (eccentric contraction) as the band prevented increase of the signal intensity. The band protected the muscle edema more effectively in hitting the ball than in swinging the racket, as the defined effective ratio [ER] of eccentric contraction (0.79) was smaller than that of concentric contraction (1.01).