Tennis elbow, or lateral epicondylitis, is a condition, which results in pain and tenderness on the outside of the elbow from overuse of the forearm muscles and tendons. That overuse leads to damage. Playing tennis and racquet sports are common culprits of tennis elbow. However, other sports and activities can pose a risk. Sometimes, there’s no perceived cause at all.

Dr. Christopher Doumas, a board certified orthopaedist with University Orthopaedic Associates (UOA), whose specialty is the hand and upper extremity, says, “The majority of tennis elbow cases will heal on their own, but it can take up to six to eight months of frustrating and prolonged treatment.” He also knows this from his own personal experience with a very painful tennis elbow.

Michael Capadona has also felt the pain of tennis elbow. During his first bout, the 43-year-old Old Bridge, New Jersey resident initially tried therapy, but it didn’t work. In fact, the pain got worse. Finally, he opted for surgery. The open procedure was costly – not just money, but time and quality of life.

Capadona says of that surgery (which was done elsewhere), “It was very expensive. I was in a cast and out of work for two months. Then my wife Dawn who also suffered from tennis elbow went to Dr. Doumas and that’s when I discovered the procedure he did for her, which got her back to work right away. Shame on me, I thought, It’s too late now.”
But then Capadona got tennis elbow again – this time in the other elbow. “I skipped all the middlemen and went right to Dr. Doumas. He basically stated that in my case, therapy was not going to do anything.”

Dr. Doumas said that like Michael’s wife, Michael Capadona was a candidate for an innovative treatment medically known as Percutaneous Tenotomy and Percutaneous Fasciotomy – a procedure enabled by the Tenex Health TX™ System. Tenex Health TX is groundbreaking technology. “As a new procedure, this is a game changer for tendonitis treatment in various parts of the body, especially the elbow. Moving forward, this has the potential to become the standard care of the future,” said Dr. Doumas.

Unlike other medical or physical therapies, the goal of the Tenex procedure is to identify the source of pain using focused ultrasonic energy to break down the diseased tissue in the tendon and then remove it. The technology is able to use a needle to do the work of a scalpel and is similar to the technology used to treat cataracts in eye surgery. In addition, while most other medical or physical therapies only mask the symptoms, this treatment removes the source of pain.

Because the three millimeter incision in this procedure is so small and the ultrasonic energy is so precise in treating only the damaged tendon tissue, the surrounding healthy tissue is left unharmed and there are no stitches. Dr. Doumas is one of a select few orthopaedic surgeons who uses the Tenex procedure for tendonitis issues in various parts of the body.
As of this writing, Michael Capadona’s elbow is nearly recovered three weeks following the Tenex procedure with Dr. Doumas. He’s back to work pain-free (went back almost immediately) and didn’t need any particular rehab. In fact, he has new hope for his healed elbow. “I’ve gone to the gym but have been limited for the last couple of years because of my elbows. I did cardio but couldn’t lift weights. Now, I’m going back to working on my upper body.”

Because of his experience, Capadona gives his caretakers high praise. “Dr. Doumas is great. He doesn’t rush. He takes time to explain everything and answers all questions. I really like that. The staff is great too. They followed up after the surgery. Everyone was very pleasant, very helpful. I had a good experience. I would recommend UOA and Dr. Doumas to anyone.”

For Dawn, the feeling is mutual. “We’re both feeling great,” Michael says in conclusion of himself and his wife.