How effective is cortisone injection for golfer's elbow?

Golfer's elbow is pain linked to the tendons on the inner side of the elbow, often aggravated by gripping, wrist flexion, throwing, or repeated lifting. Cortisone may calm local pain and inflammation around the tendon attachment. That relief can help you modify work or sport and begin a gradual strengthening plan. It does not rebuild tendon structure or remove the activity that caused overload. A clinician should consider other sources of inner-elbow pain, including nerve irritation, before choosing an injection.

Tell the clinician about diabetes, blood-thinning medicines, allergies, infection, previous injections, and your work or sport demands. Reduce the gripping or lifting movement that provokes pain, then return to loading gradually under guidance. A brace, technique change, and exercises that build forearm and wrist capacity may be part of the plan. Avoid using early pain relief as a signal to resume full effort. If symptoms do not change, a fresh examination can guide a different approach.

Get prompt assessment for a deformed elbow, sudden loss of hand strength, persistent numbness, or severe pain after an injury. Contact the treating clinician if the injection site becomes red, hot, increasingly swollen, or more painful, or if you develop fever. Pain that spreads with tingling into the hand, progressive weakness, or failure to regain useful movement needs review rather than repeated self-treatment.

Is the inner-elbow tendon the confirmed pain source? What activity should I pause, and how should I restart it? Which strengthening exercises are appropriate? If relief is brief, what other diagnosis or treatment should we consider?