Runner's Knee: What Is It and How Effective Is Conservative Management?

In brief: Forty-eight trained runners with runner's knee were examined, treated, and followed for eight months to identify the causes of this injury and its response to a particular regimen of conservative management. The subjects (41 men, 7 women), ranged in age from 20 to 40. Most trained from 40 to 80 km per week and had been running for four years or less; half had recently altered their training routine, the most common change being an increase in distance. Treatment consisted of prescribing appropriate running shoes alone (34%), orthoses alone (28%), shoes and orthoses (15%), appropriate running shoes plus ice application (19%), or icing alone (4%). Sixty-five percent of the subjects were symptom free within four weeks of starting treatment, a result at least equal to results cited in other reports.