Use of TPD Heat Lamp for Tennis Elbow Pain - a Randomized-controlled Trial

September 13, 2011 updated by: Jyoti Kotecha, Queen's University

A Randomized Double-blind Study to Assess the Use of TDP© Heat-lamp as an Effective Therapy for Tennis Elbow Pain (Lateral Epicondylitis Pain)

Tennis elbow (Lateral epicondylitis) is a common condition seen in Family Medicine that gives rise to pain, and can lead to loss of function and time off work.

The normal treatment for tennis elbow pain is oral pain relief medication (analgesia), and/or physiotherapy, local massage or even surgery. In mainland China, tennis elbow pain has also been treated using TDP © Heat-lamp therapy, and is considered to be an effective treatment for this condition.

This study is a clinical trial that seeks to measure the effectiveness of the TDP © Heat-lamp therapy to relieve tennis elbow pain without the use of oral pain medication.

Study Overview

Status

Terminated

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Double-blind randomized controlled trial

Patient recruitment

Patients registered in the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system of the Family Medicine Centre of Queen's University with a confirmed diagnosis of tennis elbow (lateral epicondylitis) in the 12-month period from 1st March 2008 to 31st March 2009, are recruited and studied. An internal email plus paper memo will be circulated to all other Family Physicians in the Centre, requesting their participation in the study. Patients are then selected randomly from the pool.

Entry/Randomization Procedure

All eligible patients enrolled in the study centre will be entered into a patient registration log. This will automatically provide a serial number for that patient that should be used for all documentation and correspondence about this patient. All randomizations will be done centrally by the administrator at the CSPC.

Randomization

A total of 116 patients will be randomized into two equal arms of 58 patients in each. Arm 1 is the trial arm and Arm 2 is the control arm.

Treatment

Arm 1: Patients will be given a four-week course of TDP© Heat-lamp. The heat-lamp will be targeted to the pain site on the elbow. Each treatment will take about 30 minutes.

Arm 2: Patients will be given a four-week course of TDP© Heat-lamp using a dummy TDP© Heat-lamp. A dummy heat-lamp is a modified version of the TDP© Heat-lamp without the intended therapeutic effects. The dummy heat-lamp will be targeted to the pain site on the elbow. Each treatment will take about 30 minutes.

Allocation of Treatment

Treatment is executed by staff nurses at the Centre. The staff nurse will be blinded to the coding of the TDP© Heat-lamps, and will operate the lamp for 30 minutes at a specified distance of 20cm from the surface of the affected limb of each patient.

During the course of treatment, patients will be advised not to use any other means of analgesia. If they do, it must be recorded in a patient diary provided to them for use during the study. Patients that have taken oral medication may be considered to be inadmissible subjects during the final analysis.

Dose Adjustment

There is no dose adjustment permitted. During the treatment, patients will be regularly monitored for the development of any undue discomfort. If discomfort is experienced by a patient, treatment will be terminated immediately.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Anticipated)

116

Phase

  • Phase 2
  • Phase 3

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Canada
    • Ontario
      • Kingston, Ontario, Canada, K7L 5E9
        • Queen's University-CPC, 220 Bagot Street

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 65 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Patients that have consented.
  • Patients diagnosed with tennis elbow pain. Definition of tennis elbow (lateral epicondylitis) is "pain or tenderness on loading relevant muscle on the lateral epicondyle, with no shoulder or wrist pain.". Patients recruited will be interviewed and examined to confirm the clinical diagnosis. The level of pain will be assessed with the visual analogue scale (VAS) and level of functional disability with the QUICKDASH Questionnaire.
  • Patients must be between the ages of 18-65.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Patients with existing diagnosis of neuropathic pain, metabolic or metastatic bone pain will be excluded. So will patients with recent or previous bone fracture of the elbow and epicondyles.
  • Patients taking any form of oral analgesia in the last 2 weeks prior to randomization.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: Double

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: 1
Treatment: TDP© Lamp used Duration of each treatment 30min Course of treatment 3 times a week for 3-4 weeks
Device: TDP© Lamp
TDP© heat lamp is an electrical device with a heating element sitting behind a ceramic plate made of clay and minerals
Other: 2
Treatment: Dummy TDP© Lamp used Duration of each treatment 30min Course of treatment 3 times a week for 3-4 weeks
Device: Dummy TDP© Lamp
The dummy TDP© heat lamp is an electrical device with the heating element removed.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
To determine if TDP© heat lamp is an effective therapy for the alleviation of chronic pain due to lateral epicondylitis (tennis-elbow pain.)
Time Frame: At completion of trial
At completion of trial

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Queen's University

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Lawrence Leung, MD, Queen's University

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

August 1, 2008

Primary Completion (Actual)

March 1, 2011

Study Completion (Actual)

March 1, 2011

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

July 28, 2008

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 29, 2008

First Posted (Estimate)

July 30, 2008

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

September 14, 2011

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 13, 2011

Last Verified

September 1, 2011

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • CAM01

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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