d) Elbow, Forearm, and Hand

Never assume the root cause of a problem is at the place that hurts!

Myofascial symptoms in the elbows, forearms, wrists, fingers and thumbs are extremely common. In addition to pain and aching, trigger points can cause numbness, tingling, burning, swelling, hypersensitivity, weakness, and stiffness. The combined effects of several of these things can cause you to unexpectedly drop things.

When the practitioner is uninformed about trigger points, these symptoms are likely to be mistakenly interpreted as indicating epicondylitis, arthitis, bursitis, tendinitis, tennis elbow, carpal tunnel syndrome, or a neurological defect. Conventional treatment of symptoms in the forearms and hands is usually local, despite the fact that many of these problems originate with trigger points in the neck, chest, upper back, or shoulders. Because of the displacement of symptoms, relief obtained from local treatments with magnets, wrist splints, pressure straps, electro-stimulation, ultrasound, and acupuncture is likely to be temporary at best. Similarly, since drugs don’t affect trigger points and may only mask their symptoms, any beneficial effect of pain medication can only be transitory.

Two extremely popular but often mistaken diagnosis, carpal tunnel syndrome and lateral epicondylitis (tennis elbow), are of particular interest. When your symptoms receive one of these labels, conventional treatments may cause needless suffering and expenses and give far less than satisfactory results. Even after surgery, cortisone shots, and physical therapy, symptoms often remain unchanged and sometimes are made worse. When trigger points therapy is tried first, more extreme measures can usually be avoided (Travell and Simons, 1999, 685-799).

Source : Clair Davies, The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook, p.108.