Medial and lateral epicondylitis in the athlete.

An appropriate diagnosis must be made after carefully excluding all other options in treating the patient with lateral epicondylitis. The majority of these patients will do well with nonsurgical treatment; however, if unresponsive to this regimen, a carefully selected patient will have a successful result with surgical reconstruction (85%-95% of patients). Attention to detail both pre- and postoperatively will help to create a successful result in a disease entity that plagues a large proportion of our athletic population.