The effect of a patellar strap on knee joint proprioception in athletes with patellar tendinopathy.

Haak, S. (Svenja) (2015) The effect of a patellar strap on knee joint proprioception in athletes with patellar tendinopathy. thesis, Medicine.

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Abstract

Background: Patellar tendinopathy (jumper’s knee) is a common sports activity related painful overuse injury of the patellar tendon. Patellar strapping is widely used among athletes with patellar tendinopathy. Besides pain reduction it is hypothesized that a patellar strap may also improve knee joint proprioception and could thereby prevent future or further injuries. Aim: To evaluate the effect of the Genupoint patellar strap on knee joint proprioception in athletes with patellar tendinopathy. Design: Randomized controlled crossover pilot study. Participants and setting: Twenty-nine athletes with patellar tendinopathy (21 men, 8 women, between 18-50 years) were included. All tests were conducted at the Centre for Sport Medicine at the University Medical Centre Groningen (UMCG). Measurements: The quality of active angle reproduction (joint position sense) with and without the use of the Genupoint patellar strap was measured by MR Cube. The participants served as their own control, with no patellar strap being the internal control condition. The order of conditions (with and without patellar strap) during the proprioception test was randomized. Analysis: To analyse the effect of the Genupoint patellar strap on knee joint proprioception a repeated measures analysis of covariance was performed (P<0.05). The participants were categorized into groups of high and low proprioceptive ability for further analysis. Participants with a deviation from the correct preset joint position below the median were categorized as having high proprioceptive ability (n=14) and those with a deviation above the median as having low proprioceptive ability (n=15). Results: No significant difference was found by performing the repeated measures ANCOVA between the with and without Genupoint patellar strap conditions for the whole group (F(1, 27)=3.63, P=0.068). After categorizing the participants into high and low proprioceptive ability, a significant improvement was found in those categorized as having low proprioceptive ability (F(1, 13)=6.10, P=0.028). No significant difference was found in participants with high proprioceptive ability (F(1, 12)=0.03, P=0.876). Conclusion: The Genupoint patellar strap has a beneficial effect on knee joint proprioception in athletes with patellar tendinopathy and low proprioceptive ability evaluated by an active angle reproduction test. Relevance: This study increases the knowledge about the proprioceptive effect of patellar strapping in patellar tendinopathy.

Item Type:	Thesis (Thesis)
Supervisor name:	Akker-Scheek, I. Van den and Vries, A. de
Faculty:	Medical Sciences
Date Deposited:	25 Jun 2020 10:47
Last Modified:	25 Jun 2020 10:47
URI:	https://umcg.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/845

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