Effect of Hip Muscle Strengthening as an Adjunct to Conservative Management in Patients with Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome

Author-Chanda Nathani1, Himanshu Mohan Pathak2 1M. P. T. Chaitanya Medical Foundations College of Physiotherapy, Chinchwad, Pune-411019, Maharashtra, India. Email-chandanathani87@gmail. com 2Associate Professor, Chaitanya Medical Foundations College of Physiotherapy, Chinchwad, Pune-411019, Maharashtra, India. Email-himanshudipu@rediffmail. com. Introduction- Patellofemoral pain syndrome (PFPS) is the most common disorder affecting the lower extremity due to excessive patellofemoral joint pressure secondary to poor patellar tracking. Conservative management of PFPS includes taping, strengthening and stretching of knee musculature. In recent studies hip abductors and lateral rotators muscles weakness has been attributed as an important impairment in PFPS. Present study is done to investigate the effect of hip muscle strengthening as an adjunct to conservative management in patients with patellofemoral pain syndrome. Objectives- 1. To study the effect of conservative management and hip muscle (lateral rotators and abductors) strengthening as an adjunct to conservative management on pain and lower extremity functions in PFPS. Method 40 consenting subjects fulfilling the selection criteria were included. Further, they were allocated into 2 equal groups- group A and group B, using chit method. Group A subjects were given conservative management in the form of quadriceps strengthening, Stretching of muscles and Mc connel tapping, whereas group B in addition, underwent strengthening of hip abductor and lateral rotator muscles. Both the groups completed 3 treatments sessions per week for four weeks i. e. total 12 sessions. Before the start of training and after four weeks of training, all the subjects were evaluated with respect to visual analogue scale, anterior knee pain scale and lower extremity functional scale. Results -Results shows improvement in pain and lower extremity functions in both the groups but group B was better as compared to group A. Conclusion After four weeks of intervention, improvements of pain and function were greater for group B, but the difference was significant only for pain.