Having just treated two patients presenting with knee pain within 2 hours of each other, with almost identical onsets, prompted me to write about “jumpers knee”. It has been called this as it typically affects athletes involved with sports which require jumping such as basketball, volleyball, long jump etc. High profile sportsmen who have suffered with their patellar tendon include Ronaldo and Alan Shearer.
Both these young ladies who came to see me did not regard themselves as particularly athletic, nor did they engage in any such activities. Both reported the classic symptom of an ache just below the patella (knee cap) after a spinning class; pressure applied to the patellar tendon was painful and going up stairs also provoked the pain. A Google search on knee pain revealed some debate as to whether the condition is inflammatory in nature (“tendinitis” or “tendinosis”) or the result of a progressive breakdown in the tendon without an inflammatory response (a “tendinopathy”). Most sources seem to agree that resting and icing the area are helpful, whilst anti-inflammatory medications are best avoided as the impair the body’s natural healing response.
Treatment involved osteopathic manipulative treatment to the quadriceps, (which were found in both cases to be unusually tight and containing “knots”), cross fibre massage to the tendon itself, as well as muscle energy techniques to help lengthen short muscles. The patients were given a rehab programme involving stretching and eccentric strengthening, which have resulted in significant improvement after only a few sessions and both patients are progressing well.