How long should I advise a patient to rest and modify activities to effectively manage their tennis elbow symptoms?

For effective management of tennis elbow symptoms, you should advise a patient to rest the affected arm and avoid or reduce aggravating sport or manual work activities for 6 weeks ¹. During this period, they should maintain activity where possible ¹.

Specifically, patients should avoid tasks that involve high force, hand-gripping or pinching, or the use of high-amplitude vibrating handheld tools ¹.

If there is no response to this initial treatment after 6 weeks, the patient should be reassessed, and referral to physiotherapy should be considered ¹.