Knee orthoses for treating patellofemoral pain syndrome

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Patellofemoral pain syndrome (PFPS) is a painful musculoskeletal condition, which is characterised by knee pain located in the anterior aspect (front) and retropatellar region (behind) of the knee joint. Various non‐operative interventions are suggested for the treatment of this condition. Knee orthoses (knee braces, sleeves, straps or bandages) are worn over the knee and are thought to help reduce knee pain. They can be used in isolation or in addition to other treatments such as exercise or non‐steroidal anti‐inflammatory medications. OBJECTIVES: To assess the effects (benefits and harms) of knee orthoses (knee braces, sleeves, straps or bandages) for treating PFPS. SEARCH METHODS: We searched the Cochrane Bone, Joint and Muscle Trauma Group Specialised Register (11 May 2015), the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) (The Cochrane Library 2015 Issue 5), MEDLINE (1946 to 8 May 2015), EMBASE (1980 to 2015 Week 18), SPORTDiscus (1985 to 11 May 2015), AMED (1985 to 8 May 2015), CINAHL (1937 to 11 May 2015), PEDro (1929 to June 2015), trial registries and conference proceedings. SELECTION CRITERIA: Randomised and quasi‐randomised controlled clinical trials evaluating knee orthoses for treating people with PFPS. Our primary outcomes were pain and function. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Two review authors independently assessed studies for eligibility, assessed study risk of bias and extracted data. We calculated mean differences (MD) or, where pooling data from different scales, standardised mean differences (SMD) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) for continuous outcomes and risk ratios (RR) with 95% CIs for binary outcomes. We pooled data using the fixed‐effect model. MAIN RESULTS: We included five trials (one of which was quasi‐randomised) that reported results for 368 people who had PFPS. Participants were recruited from health clinics in three trials and were military recruits undergoing training in the other two trials. Although no trials recruited participants who were ...