Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome

Patellofemoral pain syndrome or anterior knee pain (also called runners knee) is probably the most common injury that occurs in runners. The pain is usually felt around and behind the patella. The cause of the problem is usually due to patella maltracking and the loads that are placed on the patella when running.

The reason for the maltracking of the patella is usually due to too much internal rotation of the tibia. This can be due to a couple of reasons. One is the excessive pronation of the foot that will rotate the tibia too far internally. The other reason is due to proximal muscle control issues or muscle weakness of the quadriceps and hip muscles.

The initial treatment of patellofemoral pain syndrome is the pain relief. Foot orthotics are used to deal with the excessive foot pronation and physical therapy is used to deal with the more proximal issues with exercises.