Medical Education

Golfer's elbow and tennis elbow are the same pathological process — tendon degeneration from repetitive overload — on opposite sides of the joint. The rehabilitation principles are identical, the exercises are mirror images of each other, and yet medial epicondylitis gets a fraction of the clinical attention its lateral counterpart does.

Most patients treated for lateral epicondylitis have never picked up a racquet. It's a repetitive-load tendon injury, not an inflammatory one — which is exactly why rest alone doesn't fix it, and why the real treatment looks different than most people expect.

The 'Bible bump' got its name from people striking these wrist cysts with a heavy book — a folk remedy that sometimes works and usually doesn't need to be attempted at all. Here's what actually determines whether one needs treatment.

Adhesive capsulitis has a strange, predictable arc — it often gets stiffer before it gets better, and the whole course can run over a year. Knowing that timeline up front is sometimes the most useful thing a patient can hear at diagnosis.

Numbness in the ring and pinky finger gets blamed on 'sleeping wrong' far longer than it should. The nerve involved doesn't distinguish between a bump on the funny bone and months of chronic compression — and by the time there's real weakness, recovery gets a lot less reliable.

Pain at the base of the thumb usually starts small — a jar lid, a car key, a firm handshake. For a lot of patients it's the most common form of hand arthritis, and it's also one of the most treatable if it's caught before it limits daily function.

A fall onto the thumb usually gets waved off as a sprain. Enough of the time it's actually a torn ligament — and the two look identical for the first 48 hours. Here's the exam that tells them apart, and why the window to fix it matters.

Twenty-seven years of operating on people who trained through pain has given me a very specific opinion about sport's most durable myth. Productive discomfort and joint-localized pain are categorically different signals. Treating them the same way is how you end up on my operating table.

Dupuytren's contracture is progressive, genetic, and one of the most fascinating conditions in hand surgery. The Viking disease connection, the table-top test, and why treatment is most straightforward before the finger is completely bent down — not after.

Not all hand numbness is carpal tunnel. Thoracic outlet syndrome is one of the most frequently missed diagnoses in upper extremity medicine — overlapping with carpal tunnel, cervical disc disease, and rotator cuff pathology. The pectoralis minor connection and the self-test you can do right now.

Cold water immersion after resistance training consistently reduces soreness and consistently blunts the inflammatory response that drives muscle adaptation. You are trading gains for comfort — and that is a legitimate choice, as long as you know you are making it. What the 2026 evidence actually supports.

One of the most common concerns from patients who need a brace but are reluctant to wear one. True disuse atrophy requires prolonged near-complete immobilization — not a wrist brace worn during symptomatic activities. The correct use case, and when the brace becomes the problem.

Early in my career, cortisone was the answer to almost any musculoskeletal question. The evidence that accumulated over two decades complicated that reflex considerably. What changed in my practice — and the distinction between cortisone as treatment versus cortisone as bridge.

One of the best-selling supplements in the United States. The evidence for its effectiveness is considerably less impressive than its marketing. What the GAIT trial actually showed, why so many people feel it helps anyway, and what I tell my own patients.

Mallet finger is one of the most commonly undertreated hand injuries — not because it is complex, but because the window for non-surgical treatment closes quietly while people wait to see if it resolves on its own. It does not resolve on its own.

Trigger finger is a specific mechanical problem with a specific solution — and the sooner it is addressed, the simpler that solution tends to be. A corticosteroid injection resolves it completely in the majority of early cases. Do not normalize a finger that catches.

De Quervain's is not bad luck — it is a predictable response to a predictable loading pattern. The mechanics behind Mommy Thumb, Gamer's Thumb, and Fly Fisher's Wrist are identical. Understanding them changes how you think about prevention and when to act.

Why new parents, gamers, and fly fishermen all develop the same condition — the anatomy behind Mommy Thumb, Gamer's Thumb, and Fly Fisher's Wrist. Why cortisone works here when it doesn't for tennis elbow, and the treatment hierarchy that actually resolves it.

CMC arthritis vs. De Quervain's tenosynovitis — two conditions that hurt in the same neighborhood but require completely different treatment. The Finkelstein test and CMC grind test that tell you which one you're dealing with.

Phalen's test — the classic prayer-hands maneuver — has a false negative rate of roughly 25%. Durkan's compression test cuts that number significantly. Here's the technique, what a positive test means, and why this is the test I rely on in the clinic.

"If you can move it, it's not broken" is wrong. Movement tells you whether the tendons are working — not whether the bone is intact. Here's what actually tells the difference, and the mallet finger window you cannot afford to miss.

Tennis elbow has forty different treatments because none of them truly works — except one. Eccentric loading of the wrist extensors has genuine evidence behind it. Here's the protocol, why it works, and why your instincts about rest are wrong.

We call it a FOOSH — Fall on an Outstretched Hand. Pain level immediately after impact is a terrible predictor of fracture. Here's what actually tells you which category you're in — and the anatomical snuffbox test every outdoorsperson should know.

Why cortisone produces excellent short-term relief for tennis elbow and significantly worse one-year outcomes — and the conditions where injection is genuinely the right call. The inject vs. load distinction every patient deserves to understand.

The four-stage progression of ulnar nerve compression at the elbow — and when the window for conservative treatment starts closing. Includes the Finkelstein test and a stage-by-stage breakdown of what symptoms mean at each point.