Injured golfers get back on course with tendon treatment.

The joy of the game of golf can fade somewhat when your body starts to fail you. PGA golfer Glen Hnatiuk knows this only too well. Glen turned pro in 1990 and while not a household name has consistently been one of the top 125 players in the world since 1998.

Unfortunately, Hnatiuk suffered from chronic lateral epicondylitis, or "tennis elbow" as it is more commonly known. Tennis elbow is a painful degenerative condition of the tendon fibers in the elbow common among athletes whose sports require repetitive motion.

These tendons are responsible for anchoring the muscles that extend or lift the wrist and hand. Patients often complain of severe, burning pain on the outside part of the elbow. In most cases, the pain starts in a mild and slow fashion and gradually worsens over weeks or months.

For many weekend warriors and amateur golfers, the answer is rest, stretching, bracing, medicines or injections. In some cases, however, where tendons don't properly heal, patients are often left considering invasive surgery that can involve significant recovery time.

A new medical device and technique referred to as "Topaz" is enabling a less invasive alternative based on radiofrequency technology and is being quickly adopted by sports medicine specialists around the country. The technology offers an innovative advancement in the treatment of tendons. This procedure is a less invasive alternative and yields significantly faster recovery times.

The results of a recently completed two-year study published in Arthroscopy: The Journal of Arthroscopic & Related Surgery have shown Topaz to be especially effective in treating chronic lateral epicondylitis.

The study consisted of patients from the San Diego Sports Medicine & Orthopaedics Center (SDSM) who had been suffering from the symptoms of tennis elbow for six months or longer. Each of the patients had failed to achieve relief after conservative treatment, yet each reported "significantly reduced" pain only seven to 10 days after TOPAZ procedures.

In Hnatiuk's case, he tried to treat his "tennis elbow" for years with painkillers and antiinflammatories, but the pain continued to get worse and greatly affected his golf game. After consulting with his doctor, Glen decided to try the less invasive surgical treatment called Topaz.

Traditional surgical treatments of tendon problems call for removing the damaged tissue and require a long period of recovery. With Topaz, the doctor makes a small one-inch incision, and then treats the damaged tendon with the TOPAZ Microdebrider, a small wand-like device, which uses controlled amounts of radio frequency energy to dissolve the damaged tissue and stimulate a healing response. From start to finish the whole procedure takes less than 20 minutes and because it preserves the anatomical structure of the tissue requires a much shorter period of recovery.

Orthopaedic surgeons, podiatric surgeons, and other sports medicine experts are now using Topaz to treat a wide variety of tendon problems including golfer's knee, achilles tendonosis and plantar fasciitis (heel pain).

Bruce Hartzell is a freelance writer.