I've been playing badminton for few years but recently developed what I believe may be tennis elbow. Apart from buying an elbow support, is there anything I can do to alleviate this condition?
C Collins, Southall

Tennis elbow has many causes. The likelihood is that you have "classic" tennis elbow - pain over the outer aspect of the elbow, around the funny bone, which is most often caused by an overuse injury to the tendon which attaches some of the muscles that control the wrist to the upper arm. However, degeneration of the elbow joint, nerve entrapment at the elbow, ligament degeneration and neck problems can also all cause pain here.

Several things can be done. First, change your grip on the racquet and your style of play: tennis players who switch to badminton or squash are at risk of tennis elbow if not properly coached. Some patients benefit from transverse friction massage (where the tendon is massaged cross-sectionally), though this can be so painful that some say they are better off without it. Ultrasound and laser therapy are controversial treatments: most scientific studies show that they are not that effective.

So-called "eccentric" exercises (ie trying to pull up your wrist while somebody tries to push it down) seem to be beneficial in up to 60% of patients, but have to be performed 90 times a day for three months (no discounts here), and can hurt. In chronic cases, extra-corporeal shockwave therapy (low-frequency shock waves shot at the affected tendon) can be effective. This too can be painful, but patients need only four to six sessions, so it is not too bad. Whichever you choose, during the treatment period you should abstain from racquet sport altogether. If all these things do not work, surgery is the last resort.

· Professor Maffulli is a consultant orthopaedic and sports injury surgeon at Keele University Medical School. If you have a question for him, email fitness@theguardian.com