Patellar Tendonitis Treatment
What is Patellar Tendonitis or Jumper’s Knee?
If you’re an active person who enjoys sports, and you’re facing chronic pain in the front of your knee below the knee cap, you may be dealing with patellar tendonitis (also known as Jumper’s Knee). You will find relief with our Patellar Tendonitis Compression Knee Sleeves.
The patella (knee cap) is connected to the shin bone by a short band of tissue called the patellar tendon. This tendon is vital to the extension of the leg, a movement used repeatedly and forcefully when you kick a ball, run up hill, or jump.
Understandably, then, the individuals most prone to develop patellar tendonitis are athletes involved in sports that require a lot of jumping, like basketball or volleyball. Hence, the condition’s common name, Jumper’s Knee.
But you don’t have to be an athlete to deal with this common cause of chronic knee pain.
Patellar Tendonitis Symptoms
- Progressively worsening pain behind and below the knee cap.
- Possibly swelling or redness around the knee
It’s fairly common for those who enjoy sports on a less-than-professional level to deal with soreness and pain in muscles and joints for a day or more after the game is over. But chronic pain that starts with “the big game” and gets progressively worse is likely a sign of injury or a chronic inflammation.
Patellar tendinitis is an inflammation of the patellar tendon that involves pain behind and below the patella, usually beginning at after a particularly strenuous period of exercise. But, unlike standard next-day soreness, this knee pain eventually progresses to the point of interfering with everyday activities such as walking and climbing stairs.
In some cases, this progressive pain is accompanied by swelling or redness in and around the knee joint, although Jumper’s Knee shares this symptom with many other conditions.
Patellar Tendonitis Causes and Risk Factors
- Sporadic, intense exercise (weekend warrior syndrome)
- Poorly balanced muscle development
- Excess weight
- Inflexibility (especially of the hamstring and quadriceps)
Patellar tendonitis is caused by the forming of tiny tears in the patellar tendon due to overuse or stress on a poorly conditioned tendon. As noted above, this fits well with the fact that many sufferers are “weekend warriors” who tend to strain the tendon playing basketball or other sports on the weekends with little or no complimentary conditioning throughout the week.
Those who are overweight will automatically put additional strain on the tendon as they do on all their lower extremity joints, muscles, tendons and ligaments.
Individuals who weight train must be careful to give balanced attention to developing both the upper and lower leg muscles as disproportionately strong muscles above or below the patellar tendon can create strain that can lead to tendinitis.
Similarly, those who fail to stretch the quadracep (front of the thigh) and hamstring (back of the thigh) muscles appropriately before, during, and after exercise periods will find themselves more prone to patellar tendonitis along with a host of other muscle strains and injuries.
Patellar Tendonitis Treatment
- Reduce the inflammation
- Support the patella and the patellar tendon
If you can accomplish those two goals, you should note pain relief very quickly. Our patellar tendonitis compression knee sleeves are designed to be the best compression knee sleeves in the world and address both of these issues.
Doctors treating patellar tendinitis will recommend the following options for accomplishing this:
- Rest – Get off your feet as much as possible when the pain is at its worst. If you must walk or run, keep in mind that climbing, squatting, or jumping will cause the greatest strain.
- Ice – Use ice on the knee several times a day to help reduce swelling.
- OTC Pain Relievers – Take Motrin, Advil, or other over-the-counter pain relievers that contain ibuprofen or naproxen to help lessen the inflammation and ease pain.
- Stretches – Stretch your quadriceps, calves, and hamstrings repeatedly before, during, and after exercise to keep the patellar tendon limber.
- Strengthening – Strength training focused on balanced conditioning of the knee joint and surrounding muscles will help stabilize and strengthen the patellar tendon.
- Patella Strap – Purchase a patellar tendon strap or other knee stabilizing support that will apply medical grade pressure to the patellar tendon during activity, reducing strain and allowing the tendon to heal while easing pain.
- Cortisone – If none of the above helps, your doctor may prescribe regular injections of cortsone to control the pain, although this would be rarely used since corticosteroids tend to weaken tendons and can increase the chances of further complications.
- Surgery – As a last resort, your doctor may attempt surgery to repair the patellar tendon.
PLEASE NOTE: While some or all of these options may be effective in temporarily easing the pain of patellar tendionitis, they can also be difficult, costly, uncomfortable, and even dangerous!
KEEP READING TO SEE WHY THE KS7 COMPRESSION KNEE SLEEVE OR THE PS3 COMPRESSION PATELLA SLEEVE (our signature line of Patellar Tendonitis Compression Knee Sleeves) ARE BETTER ALTERNATIVES!