What is Jumper's Knee

Featuring Dr. Patrick Ling, MD, MPH, FCFP (EM), DipSportMed, RMSK

Duration: 2 minutes, 36 seconds

In jumper’s knee, or the other term for it is patellar tendinopathy, is a painful inflammatory condition involving the patellar tendon.

The patellar tendon is located in the front of the knee. It is the insertion between the distal pull of the patella into the tibia. Jumper’s knee particularly affects athletes in jumping sports such as basketball, volleyball, but not just limited to the jumping sports because it can also affect other athletes such as soccer players and weight lifters and even tennis players.

The symptoms of jumper’s knee or patellar tendinopathy are anterior knee pain particularly after activity or during activity. The degree of pain depends upon the severity of the illness or the chronicity of it. That is, how long it’s been there for.

In the early stages of jumper’s knee, a person might feel a little bit of pain, but oftentimes is relieved just with rest, ice, and taking some medications, and altering some of their activities. However, in severe cases, it can be very persistent throughout the activity and does not respond to rest, ice, and anti-inflammatories.

The treatment for patellar tendinopathy or jumper’s knee involves anti-inflammatory measures such as ice, compression, and the use of anti-inflammatory medications. It’s equally important to involve a physical therapist in the treatment of patellar tendinopathy as there are biomechanical factors that contribute to the condition such as hamstring and calf tightness and also in landing technique.

The role of a physical therapist would be to assess one’s abilities during jumping and landing and to help with rehabilitation in some of these techniques.

In some instances, patellar tendinopathy is not responsive to conventional conservative therapies such as anti-inflammatories and physical therapy. In instances where patellar tendinopathy is not responsive then sometimes injection type therapies are indicated.

If you feel that your patellar tendinopathy is not being responsive, you should consult your local sports medicine physician.

Presenter: Dr. Patrick Ling, Sports Medicine Physician, Saskatoon, SK

Local Practitioners: Sports Medicine Physician