Jumper’s Knee

I’ve had athlete friends who had Jumper’s Knee and it’s a annoying injury. So the bottomline, I believe in proper warmup.

Patellar tendinitis (patellar tendinopathy, also known as jumper’s knee and Sinding-Larsen-Johansson disease), is a relatively common cause of pain in the inferior patellar region in athletes.

The injury occurs in many athletes, but is most common in sports such as; baseball (catcher), bowling, golf (reading putts), soccer, rugby, volleyball, track & field, freerunning, parkour, American football, basketball, or gymnastics which require explosive movements.

It is an overuse injury from repetitive overloading of the extensor mechanism of the knee. The microtears exceed the body’s healing mechanism unless the activity is stopped.

It begins as inflammation in the patellar tendon where it attaches to the patella and may progress by tearing or degenerating the tendon.

Patients present with an ache over the patella tendon. Most patients are between 10 and 14 years old. Magnetic resonance imaging can reveal edema (increased T2 signal intensity) in the proximal aspect of the patellar tendon.

Treatment

Early stages may be treated conservatively. Currently this involves eccentric loading, a form of physiotherapy. Uncommonly it may require surgery to remove myxoid degeneration in the tendon.

This is reserved for patients with debilitating pain for 6–12 months despite conservative measures. Novel treatment modalities targeting the abnormal blood vessel growth which occurs in the condition are currently being investigated.