Introduction: Determination of a precise and reproducible diagnostic tool for the evaluation of patients with medial epicondylitis (ME) is important for an effective follow-up. The commonly suggested use of grip strength measurements with a hand dynamometer is not always easily available and may be affected by the patient's compliance. We propose that pain estimation based on the visual analog scale can be considered for this purpose as well because it addresses the painful degenerative lesion in the common flexor origin, which is the basic pathological process in ME.
Materials and methods: We analyzed and compared 237 different sets of measurements of grip strengths and pain evaluation, according to the visual analog scale, in 79 patients with ME. For the purpose of this comparison, we developed a qualitative grading system based on the statistical data of the grip strength values in the normal population.
Results: High dependency between the graded pain evaluation and measured grip strength was found.
Conclusion: We suggest that evaluation of patients with ME according to the proposed grading method of pain evaluation is as accurate as grip strength measurements.