Mike,

No, she didn't have surgery, it's from a repetitive strain injury.  She's
also got carpal tunnel, but the medial and lateral epicondylitis (tennis
elbow) is more painful.

The inflamation in the tendonitis apparently can cause scar tissue to
develop.  It's apparently a little different than the scars we traditionally
think of, but when the tendon is stretched, the scar tissue doesn't stretch
with it, causing pain, further inflamation and more scarring.  The Sonocur
breaks the scar tissue down and with rest after the treatments, allows more
normal tissue to take it's place.  I don't have a really good handle on the
physiology behind it, but here's a paper from the Journal of Rheumatology
that explains it fairly well.

http://rheumatology.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/40/12/1331

and here's another one (or the abstract) on Extracorporeal Shockwave
Treatment for lateral and medial epicondylitis.

http://ajs.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/32/3/734


On 10/26/07, Michael H. Collis <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Kendall, the scar tissue around the tendon sheaths?  Did Janet have
> surgeries as a youngster?  How does the procedure help her?
>
>

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