Tennis elbow, a curable affliction.

Forty-five patients with 47 cases of chronic lateral epicondylitis treated surgically were reviewed. Physical examination revealed increased pain with resisted wrist extension, particularly when the elbow was straight. The presence of contracture of the anterolateral elbow capsule at surgery explained the pain with extension. Release of the capsule with the extensors provided relief in 87% of patients. Operative treatment is successful in most cases of chronic tennis elbow when conservative means are exhausted.