The Patello-Femoral Pain Syndrome: A Clinical Trial of the McConnell Programme

In an uncontrolled clinical trial, 116 patients from a general population were treated with the McConnell programme for patello-femoral pain syndrome. This programme, consisting of a detailed knee assessment and treatment using a taping technique for pain relief, isometric and eccentric exercise, produced excellent to good results in 86 per cent of patients within five treatments and maintained those results one year after the cessation of treatment. Sex, current activities, duration of symptoms, abnormal foot pronation, iliotibial tract and hamstring tightness and other positive passive movement tests had no effect on the outcome of the treatment. Patients over 38 years of age had only an equal chance of being pain free with five treatments. The presence of concurrent lumbar symptoms increased the time required for positive response to the treatment (p<0.001).