Knee Overuse

Patellar Tendonitis (Jumper’s Knee)

Patellar tendonitis is a cause of pain at the front of the knee below the kneecap. It is an overuse condition and is common in sports involving repeated jumping such as volleyball, netball and basketball. The symptoms associated with this develop through a number of stages. Initially the pain may be felt sometime after the exercise is finished. As it develops pain can be felt during exercise with a reduced time span from the start of the exercise. Eventually pain can be felt at rest.

The treatment of jumper’s knee is primarily rehabilitation associated and requires specific protocols of rest, stretching and appropriate conditioning exercises with medications. In addition TheKneeDoc also offers cutting edge treatments for tendonitis including Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) injections which are a stem cell injection technique using your own blood cells and Dry-Needling of the tendon which can also stimulate healing of the tendon and so speed up recovery.

Should it not respond to treatment then surgery is indicated to decompress the tendon followed by a specific rehabilitation protocol to get you back to playing without recurrent symptoms.

Ilio-tibial Band Syndrome

This is a condition that causes pain on the outer aspect of the knee. Once again it is an overuse phenomenon and is common in sports such as running. The pain only occurs during weight bearing sports. Initially the pain comes on the outer aspect of the knee after the sport is over but as the severity increases it starts to occur during the sport and can eventually cause pain at rest. It commonly occurs in runners who suddenly increase their weekly distance which ideally should be increased at no more than 10% per week. IT band syndrome may have an underlying biomechanical cause, predisposing the individual to developing the syndrome.

The treatment involves appropriate rest and rehabilitation. Should the symptoms not respond then steroid injection under the tendon, PRP injection (see above) into the damaged tendon or surgical decompression or release is indicated. Also TheKneeDoc has access to state of the art gait analysis facilities, which may be indicated in the treatment of this condition to allow appropriate orthotic management to treat and prevent further recurrences.

Osgood Schlatter’s Disease/Sindig-Larsson-Johansson Syndrome

They may once again be considered as overuse phenomena. These are causes of anterior knee pain in adolescents. Osgood Schlatter’s disease causes pain at the point where the patellar tendon joins the shin bone. It can be one of the causes of knobbly knees in adulthood. Sindig-Larsson-Johansson syndrome is the childhood variant of patellar tendonitis and causes pain at the lower pole of the kneecap. These occur due to traction on the bone by the tendons during the growth spurt in childhood. They are both self limiting conditions and require appropriate rehabilitation and supervision. TheKneeDoc surgeon has had good results with a specifically designed rehabilitation programme which combines stretching and massage.