Authors
Matthew R Schumacher, Emma K Bakken, Kaitlyn P Reynolds, Dylan R Elletson, Jody L Eckert
Published in
Shoulder & elbow. Pages 17585732261467932. Jul 10, 2026. Epub Jul 10, 2026.
Abstract
Lateral elbow tendinopathy (LET) is the most common musculoskeletal elbow disorder. Evidence suggests that cervicothoracic involvement often contributes to forearm symptoms and that addressing the spine improves clinical outcomes. This review aimed to evaluate screening methods for the cervicothoracic spine in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that evaluated and treated LET.
This review included RCTs from PubMed, CINAHL, and CENTRAL (inception to 10 June 2025) that evaluated conservative interventions for adults with a primary diagnosis of LET. Data on cervicothoracic spine screening methods were categorized into three levels: thorough (≥4 screening items), partial (1-3 items), or no screening. Frequencies reported the extent of screening across trials.
A total of 2744 articles were retrieved, and 208 RCTs were included for data extraction. Four (1.9%) RCTs adequately reported a thorough cervicothoracic screening process before diagnosing LET, based on predefined screening criteria. A total of six trials (2.9%) were partially screened, while many (95.2%) reported no screening.
Less than 2% of LET RCTs did not perform or explicitly report objective screening of the cervicothoracic region, highlighting a need for standardized screening protocols to better characterize participants in future research and clarify the role of the cervicothoracic spine in LET outcomes.
PMID:
42437185
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 12 Jul 2026.
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