Our own Dr. Dayne Mickelson joined Shannon O’Kelley to discuss Patellar Tendonitis, or “Jumper’s Knee.” Together they review signs and symptoms, testing, treatments, and outcomes.
LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW HERE:
Welcome to IRG Sports Injury Update. I’m with Shannon O’Kelley, Physical Therapist and President of IRG Physical and Hand Therapy, and our guest, Dr. Dayne Mickelson, Orthopedic Surgeon with Proliance Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine.
Shannon O’Kelley: Dr. Mickelson, welcome. Thanks for coming on.
Dr. Mickelson: Good to be here, thanks.
Shannon O’Kelley: Hey, we’re going to talk about infrapatellar tendonitis. What is it?
Dr. Mickelson: It’s pretty common this year. It’s also known as jumper’s knee, and it’s something that can be problematic to everyday athletes as well as professional athletes. It’s usually chronic in nature, it’s slow to happen, and it’s a problem with the patellar tendon. That’s the part that connects your kneecap down to your shin bone and can get irritated with chronic overuse.
Shannon O’Kelley: Signs and symptoms?
Dr. Mickelson: Typically slow in onset, it’s problematic with activity, better with rest, and usually, pretty point tender.
Shannon O’Kelley: And it occurs a lot when people are landing or loading that lower extremity.
Dr. Mickelson: Yeah, continual loading of that extensor mechanism can cause degeneration of the tendon, that can lead to their symptoms.
Shannon O’Kelley: What kind of diagnostic testing would you do to identify it?
Dr. Mickelson: Pretty limited. We’ll usually get x-rays to start, to see that there’s not any other abnormalities or a stress fracture or anything else abnormal on x-ray. They’re typically normal. Sometimes you have to go to an ultrasound or an MRI to identify the part of the tendon that is degenerative.
Shannon O’Kelley: What about treatment and outcomes?
Dr. Mickelson: Over 85-90% of people do very well, the majority with non-operative measures, that being activity modification, rest, anti-inflammatories and a good course of physical therapy. Some have to go a step beyond that to more invasive measures, which we can do with a needle, sometimes injections of things like PRP, or some ultrasound interventions. Very rarely do we have to go in and actually surgically debride the part of the tendon and remove it.
Shannon O’Kelley: Return to play usually about six to eight weeks?
Dr. Mickelson: Depending on how severe it is, they can get back quicker than that, or sometimes a little over a month to two. If it’s a surgical intervention, that’s usually a little longer, more three to four months.
Shannon O’Kelley: If you’d like more information on infrapatellar tendinitis, you can contact Dr. Mickelson at POSM.com.