Corticosteroid or placebo injection combined with deep transverse friction massage, Mills manipulation, stretching and eccentric exercise for acute lateral epicondylitis: a randomised, controlled trial

Table 4 Sick leave, additional treatments and adverse events. Use and length of paid sick leave, use of additional not per protocol treatments and reported adverse events for each treatment group. Values are numbers (percentages) if not otherwise stated. Chi-square test of independence and one-way analysis of variance for between groups association

	Control	Placebo injection with physiotherapy	Corticosteroid injection with physiotherapy	P
	(n = 60)	(n = 58)		Chi‐square test
Paid sick leave during 52 week follow‐up
Number (percentage) on leave	30 (52)	31 (56)	30 (55)	0.88
Duration of leave for those on sick‐leave:
Days on full leave mean (95 % CI)	43.6 (22.0 to 65.1)	73.2 (34.2 to 112.2)	47.1 (30.0 to 64.3)	0.25*
Days on partial leave mean (95 % CI)	60.0 (23.1 to 96.9)	22.0 (6.8 to 37.3)	29.2 (11.2 to 47.2)	0.07*
Additional treatments
Number of patients receiving additional treatments	13 (23)	12 (22)	16 (30)	0.63
Type of treatment:
Pain killers	6 (11)	4 (7)	2 (4)	0.37
NSAIDs perorally	7 (13)	9 (16)	11 (20)	0.54
topical NSAIDs	3 (5)	1 (2)	2 (4)	0.62
other medication	3 (6)	0 (0)	3 (6)	0.22
physiotherapy	4 (7)	1 (2)	9 (17)	0.02⁺
other	6 (11)	4 (7)	4 (8)	0.76
Adverse Events
Patients reporting adverse events	9 (16)	5 (9)	6 (11)	0.51
Type of adverse events
increased pain	2 (4)	2 (4)	0 (0)	0.37
GI side effects**	8 (15)	3 (6)	6 (11)	0.30
skin atrophy	0 (0)	0 (0)	0 (0)	‐

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