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Patello-Femoral Joint Pain (knee cap pain)

Please read how the knee works before reading the following.

Patello-femoral pain syndrome is sometimes referred to as Anterior knee Pain. Anterior is the medical word for the front of, which is why the term anterior knee pain in itself is not a diagnosis. It is in fact an umbrella term that covers a number of diagnoses, one of which is patella-femoral pain syndrome.

Patello-femoral pain syndrome causes pain at the front of the knee and can be accompanied by swelling, clicking, giving way or locking symptoms. Patello-femoral pain syndrome is where the knee cap (patella) doesnt glide smoothly in the groove in the femur bone during knee movements, causing pain and clicking. Poor hip, knee or foot alignment are normally at the root of this problem, as is an imbalance or tightness in the quadriceps muscles of the thigh.Treatment will work to settle the symptoms locally, and address the surrounding biomechanics that caused the knee cap not to glide smoothly. This often includes: taping the knee cap, massage, acupuncture, joint mobilizations to release tight joints and muscles from the back to the feet. Exercises, insoles, stretching and strengthening are given to help correct lower limb and foot alignment, retrain the way the leg moves and improve running, cycling or training technique.

One of the exercises that might be used by your Physiotherapist or Osteopath to treat patella-femoral pain works on training the gluteus medius muscle of the hip, the VMO which is the inner part of the quads muscles and leg alignment. Please click on the link to learn how do do this alignment exercise.

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