Jumpers knee

Besides knowing which athletes may be at risk of jumpers knee, we also see that it is an injury more common in men than in women. Furthermore, the injury is also seen more often in young adults and adults. Risk factors for developing a jumpers knee are:

• Increase in (sports) load
• Overweight
• Reduced flexibility of other surrounding muscles (calf muscles, hamstrings, quadriceps)
• Foot abnormalities
• Practising sport at a high level

Did you know that 50% of professional volleyball players suffer from jumpers knee at times? En that this percentage is 32% of professional basketball players? In amateur sports, the percentages are fortunately a bit lower. Here we see 14% of volleyball players. 

A tendinopathy/tendon problem often develops gradually and increases in severity over time. The course of symptoms is often recognisable and goes as follows:

• Complaints at the start of an activity that gradually disappear. This is followed by an after-reaction when the activity is over.
• Complaints at start of activity that gradually disappear
• Complaints that do not disappear during activity.
• Complaints present even at rest.

Risk factors

A jumpers knee is characterised by pain to the knee below the kneecap. In addition, symptoms may present as:

• Morning stiffness
• Pain related to (sports) strain
• Being able to exercise less
• Gradual onset of symptoms
• Thickening of the tendon.

When and how long the pain symptoms occur depends on degree of irritation of the tendon and the activities you undertake. In some cases, the symptoms are limited to playing sports, while others also experience pain during daily activities.

The diagnosis in a jumpers knee is made by the story the patient tells during the intake that fits a jumpers knee. The physiotherapist can then perform tests to confirm whether a jumpers knee is indeed present. For this, we use performing a one-legged squat on incline. The physiotherapists at Fysio Fitaal Tilburg are well able to map out your symptoms. In addition, we have the ability to perform an ultrasound of the tendon to identify abnormalities in the tendon structure. Other imaging examination is not advised, as it does not give us any additional insights in this type of complaint.

Treatment of a jumpers knee consists of several stages and components. First, it is often necessary to adjust the sports load. A temporary adjustment is simply necessary to give tissue time to recover. Fortunately, adapting does not mean stopping your sport. In fact, mild complaints may be felt during activities. In practice, we see that the extent to which you can play sports in the first phase varies a lot from person to person. You can often do other activities such as walking and cycling. You can always discuss with your physiotherapist what is convenient to do.

Next, it is important to start determining what may have caused the symptoms. Has there been any change in the intensity (jump load, sprint load), frequency or duration of training. In addition, it is useful to ask yourself whether there has been a change in factors such as your surface or footwear. These are all factors that can be influenced well to increase the chances of recovery but also reduce the chances of the injury returning.

Then you get to work on train. something that is badly needed to stimulate the newly formed cells in the tendon (which we talked about earlier) to create new tendon tissue and structure it in the tendon's tensile direction. To do this, we use a training structure that research has shown works very well to reduce tendon pain. The training builds up from isometric load to isometric load (building up in load) and finally plyometric training (jumping and running forms) and sports-specific exercises. You can map out this entire route together with your physiotherapist.

During your 'rehabilitation process', it is okay to feel some pain. Scoring this from 0 (no pain) to 10 (extreme pain), we want pain to score no higher than a 3-4. This applies both during activities and to the reaction in the 24 hours afterwards. If you do notice that pain scores higher than a 3 or 4, you will have to adjust the load and postpone your next workout for a while until you get back to your starting point.

Fortunately, the prognosis of jumpers knee is good. We see that at least 80% of those who adhere well to his/her rehabilitation plan experience a sharp decrease in symptoms within about six months. Full recovery can take months to years and be variable over time. Besides exercise therapy and load adjustment, many other treatment methods are also offered.