ArticleJournal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. Global research & reviews2021
Trends in Corticosteroid Injections for Treatment of Lateral Epicondylitis: An Analysis of 80,169 Patients.
Article in Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. Global research & reviews, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 11 citations in OpenAlex.
- From past to future: bibliometric perspective of international research activity on lateral epicondylitis.Frontiers in surgery · 2025Pooled it
- A Literature Review of Lateral Epicondylitis: Diagnosis, Risk Factors, Management and Treatment.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Comparative Efficacy of Platelet-Rich Plasma, Corticosteroid, Hyaluronic Acid, and Placebo (Saline) Injections in Patients with Lateral Elbow Tendinopathy: A Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Regeneration of full thickness common extensor tendon tear after percutaneous microfragmented adipose graft.Regenerative medicineArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionCorticosteroid (CS) injections are a frequently used treatment modality for lateral epicondylitis (LE) despite an increasing number of studies suggesting their lack of efficacy. The objective of this study was to review the annual utilization of CS injections for treatment of LE, as well as that of other nonsurgical treatments and surgical treatments, to understand how recent publications have affected the practice of physicians in treating LE.
methodsPatients with LE from 2010 to 2017 were identified within a national insurance database and grouped by treatment modalities of CS injections, physical therapy, bracing treatment, and surgery. Epidemiologic and demographic data were reported using descriptive statistics. The number of patients receiving each treatment and the number of CS injections per patient were quantified for each year, and annual trends were analyzed using logistic regression.
resultsAmong 80,169 qualifying patients, 16,476 received CS injections, 12,180 received physical therapy, 1,874 received bracing treatment, and 2,650 underwent surgery, with patients receiving multiple modalities being members of each respective group. We found a significant decrease in the proportion of patients with LE receiving CS injections from 23.3% in 2010 to 18.8% in 2017 (R2 = 0.956, P < 0.001). Interestingly, the number of CS injections per patient increased during this period from 1.33 to 1.83 (R2 = 0.843, P = 0.001). No notable changes in utilization trends for other modalities were found. DISCUSSION: Overall, our data support a decline in the use of CS injection as a treatment modality for LE from 2010 to 2017. Although correlational, this trend may reflect the increasing body of published evidence demonstrating the ineffectiveness of CS injections for the treatment of LE. In addition, the increasing number of injections per patient among those who received injections contrasts with the overall decrease in steroid utilization among all patients. Further study is needed to fully understand the mechanisms behind these trends.
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