Tailored motor control and strenght training of proximal muscles combined with education in patellofemoral pain : A singel subject experimental design study

Sammanfattning:                      Background Patients with patellofemoral pain (PFS) are common in primary health care. Young women are most affected, limiting them in everyday life and in sports. There is an increased risk of PFS in case of impaired strength and motor control in proximal musculature. Consensus prevails that therapeutic physical training should be included as part of rehabilitation, where the multimodal method is the golden standard. Purpose The aim is to evaluate the efficacy of tailored physiotherapy intervention involving motor control and strength training of proximal musculature combined with education with respect to pain, strength and function in patients with patellofemoral pain. Method A single subject experimental design study (SSED) consisting of three young women with PFS was conducted. The design is an A-B design, which includes a baseline phase with repeated measurements (A) and an intervention phase with tailored physiotherapy (B). The primary outcome measures were estimated with a visual analog scale (VAS) as well as strength measurement of proximal musculature with a handheld dynamometer (HHD). The secondary outcome measure was self-perceived function, estimated with Patient Specific Functional Scale (PSFS). Results The results of this SSED show that tailored physiotherapy intervention involving motor control and strength training of proximal musculature combined with education can be effective for young women with PFS. The results are not entirely consistent in terms of pain, strenght and self-perceived function where one in three participants showed significant (alpha 0.05) reduced pain and two out of three participants showed significant (alpha 0.05) improvement of self-perceived function. Regarding strength, there was no significant (alpha 0.05) effect on the affected side of any of the participants:  Conclusion Motor control and strength training of proximal musculature combined with education may be effective for young women with PFS with respect to pain and self-perceived function.