Continuous Professional Development Update

Continuous Professional Development Update

Report of the Talk “Is Targeted Intervention for Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome Possible?”

 

Dr Ka Yu Lee

 

We are very honored to have Professor Jim Richards to talk to us about targeted intervention for Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome on the 28th April 2015.

 

 

Dr. Jim Richards divided the talk into two sessions, he first talked about Osteoarthritis knee (OA knee) which is also called medial compartment syndrome as the medial joint space in the knee decreases. Dr. Richards presented the biomechanics of how the knee adduction moments increases as OA knee patient walks. He also showed us some data on how much OA knee Brace and lateral wedging can help with decreasing the knee varus angle and knee adduction moments, thus decreasing pain for this kind of patients. Mobility shoes (shoes with medial heel trimmed narrower) and muscles strengthening are also shown to help with OA knees.

 

 

Dr. Richards continued the second part of his talk on patellofemoral pain syndrome. It is a very common musculoskeletal disorder of the knee joint which causes pain and dysfunction around the patella leading to limitations in physical activities. Current multimodal management approaches are not optimal due to the consistently reported large individual variations in outcomes. Therefore, targeted intervention for PFP subgroups could optimize patient outcome.

 

In the workshop, Dr. Richards presented his work and current research. He outlined a program of work exploring if clinically important subgroups exist. Data suggests that 3 subgroups of PFP patients may exist: a ‘weak and tighter’ subgroup, a ‘strong’ subgroup and a ‘weak and pronated foot’ subgroup.

 

 

Dr. Richards discussed 6 clinical assessment tests to identify these three subgroups of PFP patients. The implications and potential management using targeted interventions for each of the subgroups are also discussed.

 

 

Dr. Richard ended the presentation with a “live” demonstration of the effects of stabilization using foot orthoses and knee bracing. Sensors were put on a participant’s leg muscles to detect for muscle utilization before and after wearing the OA shoes.