RESEARCH ARTICLE
Eccentric Exercise Protocols for Patella Tendinopathy: Should we Really be Withdrawing Athletes from Sport? A Systematic Review
Adnan Saithna*, 1, Rajiv Gogna 2, Njalalle Baraza 1, Chetan Modi 1, Simon Spencer 1
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2012Volume: 6
Issue: Suppl 3
First Page: 553
Last Page: 557
Publisher ID: TOORTHJ-6-553
DOI: 10.2174/1874325001206010553
Article History:
Received Date: 30/8/2012Revision Received Date: 20/9/2012
Acceptance Date: 23/9/2012
Electronic publication date: 30/11/2012
Collection year: 2012
open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
Abstract
The 2007 review by Visnes and Bahr concluded that athletes with patella tendinopathy should be withdrawn from sport whilst engaging in eccentric exercise (EE) rehabilitation programs. However, deprivation of sport is associated with a number of negative psychological and physiological effects. Withdrawal from sport is therefore a decision that warrants due consideration of the risk/benefit ratio. The aim of this study was to determine whether sufficient evidence exists to warrant withdrawal of athletes from sport during an eccentric exercise rehabilitation program. A systematic review of the literature was performed to identify relevant randomised trials. Data was extracted to determine whether athletes were withdrawn from sport, what evidence was presented to support the chosen strategy and whether this affected the clinical outcome. Seven studies were included. None of these reported high quality evidence to support withdrawal. In addition, three studies were identified in which athletes were not withdrawn from sport and still benefited from EE. This review has demonstrated that there is no high quality evidence to support a strategy of withdrawal from sport in the management of patella tendinopathy.