GET ACTIVE COLUMN: Nice and knee-sy does it!

Warren Hutson, of Buxton Osteopath, gives advice on knee injuries and niggles in his latest column
Warren Hutson.Warren Hutson.
Warren Hutson.

The majority of athletes that come to see me with anterior knee pain over the years have, more often than not, a patellafemoral (PF) problem.

The cause may be a slight biomechanical mal-alignment that has stirred up the knee cap.

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This is good, or they may have started to wear the cartilage behind the kneecap and now as a result it will have softened Chondromalacia, which is bad.

This type of problem affects runners, cross fitters, exercise enthusiasts and simple recreational walkers or any standard of athlete who spends a lot of time exercising.

The biomechanical irritations and the chondromalacia types can be managed conservatively with a combination of local treatment regimes and correcting the inefficiency of the biomechanical faults.

The more serous chondral/osteochondral defects often need some surgical intervention as often the pathology (disease) is too advanced to respond to conservative treatment.

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The therapist who is diagnosing and treating this condition must have a full understanding of the biomechanical contributions of the kneecap in the relationship with the femur, this is critical for the therapist to treat and manage the presenting condition.

At the Patellafemoral level, the fault is usually a misalignment of the patella in the femoral trochlear groove.

This can often be caused by the kneecap being pulled too far.