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TerminatedNCT00725023Updated Sep 14, 2011

Use of TPD Heat Lamp for Tennis Elbow Pain - a Randomized-controlled Trial

A Phase 2/3 interventional study of TDP© Lamp and Dummy TDP© Lamp in Lateral Epicondylitis, sponsored by Queen's University. Terminated at 1 site in Canada. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 65 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2011-09-14.

Sponsored by Queen's University · Phase 2/3, Interventional, and Treatment

Why this study was terminated
Slow accrual
Phase
Phase 2/3
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
116
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
18 Years to 65 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

Tennis elbow (Lateral epicondylitis) is a common condition seen in Family Medicine that gives rise to pain, and can lead to loss of function and time off work.

The normal treatment for tennis elbow pain is oral pain relief medication (analgesia), and/or physiotherapy, local massage or even surgery. In mainland China, tennis elbow pain has also been treated using TDP © Heat-lamp therapy, and is considered to be an effective treatment for this condition.

This study is a clinical trial that seeks to measure the effectiveness of the TDP © Heat-lamp therapy to relieve tennis elbow pain without the use of oral pain medication.

Read the detailed description

Double-blind randomized controlled trial

Patient recruitment

Patients registered in the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system of the Family Medicine Centre of Queen's University with a confirmed diagnosis of tennis elbow (lateral epicondylitis) in the 12-month period from 1st March 2008 to 31st March 2009, are recruited and studied. An internal email plus paper memo will be circulated to all other Family Physicians in the Centre, requesting their participation in the study. Patients are then selected randomly from the pool.

Entry/Randomization Procedure

All eligible patients enrolled in the study centre will be entered into a patient registration log. This will automatically provide a serial number for that patient that should be used for all documentation and correspondence about this patient. All randomizations will be done centrally by the administrator at the CSPC.

Randomization

A total of 116 patients will be randomized into two equal arms of 58 patients in each. Arm 1 is the trial arm and Arm 2 is the control arm.

Treatment

Arm 1: Patients will be given a four-week course of TDP© Heat-lamp. The heat-lamp will be targeted to the pain site on the elbow. Each treatment will take about 30 minutes.

Arm 2: Patients will be given a four-week course of TDP© Heat-lamp using a dummy TDP© Heat-lamp. A dummy heat-lamp is a modified version of the TDP© Heat-lamp without the intended therapeutic effects. The dummy heat-lamp will be targeted to the pain site on the elbow. Each treatment will take about 30 minutes.

Allocation of Treatment

Treatment is executed by staff nurses at the Centre. The staff nurse will be blinded to the coding of the TDP© Heat-lamps, and will operate the lamp for 30 minutes at a specified distance of 20cm from the surface of the affected limb of each patient.

During the course of treatment, patients will be advised not to use any other means of analgesia. If they do, it must be recorded in a patient diary provided to them for use during the study. Patients that have taken oral medication may be considered to be inadmissible subjects during the final analysis.

Dose Adjustment

There is no dose adjustment permitted. During the treatment, patients will be regularly monitored for the development of any undue discomfort. If discomfort is experienced by a patient, treatment will be terminated immediately.

02

Conditions studied

  • Lateral Epicondylitis

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Keywords

  • Pain, chronic pain, tennis elbow, lateral epicondylitis
03

In context

Tennis Elbow

284 studies on the registry are indexed under Tennis Elbow; 60 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 116 is above the median of 50 across 253 interventional studies indexed under Tennis Elbow.

Browse Tennis Elbow studies →

Lead sponsor

Queen's University is the lead sponsor of 199 studies on the registry; 16 are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years to 65 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

  • Patients that have consented.
  • Patients diagnosed with tennis elbow pain. Definition of tennis elbow (lateral epicondylitis) is "pain or tenderness on loading relevant muscle on the lateral epicondyle, with no shoulder or wrist pain.". Patients recruited will be interviewed and examined to confirm the clinical diagnosis. The level of pain will be assessed with the visual analogue scale (VAS) and level of functional disability with the QUICKDASH Questionnaire.
  • Patients must be between the ages of 18-65.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Patients with existing diagnosis of neuropathic pain, metabolic or metastatic bone pain will be excluded. So will patients with recent or previous bone fracture of the elbow and epicondyles.
  • Patients taking any form of oral analgesia in the last 2 weeks prior to randomization.
05

Study design

Phase
Phase 2 / Phase 3
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Single group
Masking
Double (Participant, Care provider)
Enrollment
116 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    1

    Treatment: TDP© Lamp used Duration of each treatment 30min Course of treatment 3 times a week for 3-4 weeks

    Device: TDP© Lamp

  • Other
    2

    Treatment: Dummy TDP© Lamp used Duration of each treatment 30min Course of treatment 3 times a week for 3-4 weeks

    Device: Dummy TDP© Lamp

Interventions

  • DeviceTDP© Lamp

    TDP© heat lamp is an electrical device with a heating element sitting behind a ceramic plate made of clay and minerals

  • DeviceDummy TDP© Lamp

    The dummy TDP© heat lamp is an electrical device with the heating element removed.

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. To determine if TDP© heat lamp is an effective therapy for the alleviation of chronic pain due to lateral epicondylitis (tennis-elbow pain.)

    Time frame: At completion of trial

07

Study locations

1 site
  • Queen's University-CPC, 220 Bagot Street
    Kingston, Ontario K7L 5E9, Canada
08

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Sep 14, 2011, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
09

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT00725023
Lead sponsor
Queen's University
Responsible party
Jyoti Kotecha (Assistand Director, Queen's University) — Principal investigator
First posted
Jul 30, 2008
Start date
Aug 2008
Primary completion
Mar 2011
Completion
Mar 2011
Last update
Sep 14, 2011

Study contacts

Lawrence Leung, MD
principal investigator · Queen's University

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is terminated, as verified in Sep 2011. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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