What is Patellar Tendinitis?
The patellar tendon is a tough, flexible tissue that attaches the kneecap to the shinbone. It helps the muscles in the front of your thigh to straighten your leg.
Repeated strain on a tendon can cause tiny micro-tears in the tissue. The body will try to heal these tears, but sometimes they are made faster than the body can fix them. As the number of tears increases, they can cause pain from inflammation, weaken the tendon, and cause larger tears in the tissue.
Jumping and landing put repeated strain on the patellar tendon, causing injury and inflammationtendon damage. Although most common in athletes who play sports which involve a lot of jumping, patellar tendinitis can also occur with knee problems that have caused damage to the area, such as arthritis, muscle tears, or dislocation.
Often, patellar tendinitis can get better with rest or physical therapy. Over-the-counter medicine may be needed to relieve pain.
Symptoms
Causes
Many of these risks can be reduced with proper warming up and training.
Diagnosis and Tests
To diagnose patellar tendinitis, your healthcare provider will perform a physical exam. During this exam, your healthcare provider may press on the area where the tendons attach to the shin or knee to see if they can feel any hardness or swelling. Your healthcare provider may also ask you to move your knee to assess your range of motion. You may also be asked to perform simple knee exercises that will help your healthcare provider determine how strong your knee is.
Your healthcare provider may also ask you a few questions about your symptoms, such as:
- When did your symptoms start?
- Are they getting worse?
- Do you have swelling, buckling, locking, or snapping in your knee?
- Have your symptoms gotten in the way of or stopped you from doing normal activities like walking, running, standing, or using stairs?
- Have you tried any self-care or at-home treatments?
If your healthcare provider finds that you have the symptoms of patellar tendinitis, your healthcare provider may perform an x-ray, ultrasound, or MRI to confirm the diagnosis.
Treatments & Prevention
Treatments
Treatment will usually focus on relieving the pain and preventing further injury.
Your healthcare provider will help you determine a treatment plan for your patellar tendinitis. If your case is mild, you may be able to treat your tendon with the RICE method to help relieve pain and reduce swelling:
- Rest. Avoid putting weight on the injured bone, and avoid participating in normal activities until you get better. Switch to something lower impact for a while. For example, try swimming instead of running until you condition heals.
- Ice. Use an ice pack (you can also use a bag of frozen vegetables if you do not have an ice pack) for 15 to 20 minutes, 3 times a day.
- Compression. You can use supportive taping, a compression bandage or compression brace to help put pressure on the bone and reduce swelling.
- Elevation. To keep swelling down, elevate (raise) your knee above the level of your heart. You can do this by sitting or lying down on a couch or floor and placing pillows under the injured foot, leg, or arm until it is higher than your chest.
Your healthcare provider may also recommend taking over-the-counter pain medicine. Your healthcare provider will likely recommend physical therapy to strengthen leg muscles and decrease stress on the tendon.
In the most severe cases, or if your tendon does not get better with other treatments, your healthcare provider may recommend surgery. If your healthcare provider recommends surgery, they will help you develop a rehabilitation plan that will help you with recovery.
Prevention
You can prevent or reduce patellar tendinitis by:
- Stretching and warming up all your leg muscles properly and using proper technique during your regular activities.
- Paying attention to knee pain and not trying to push through it. Ease up on activities that cause pain.