Response of therapeutic exercise and patellar taping on patella position and pain control in the Patellofemoral pain syndrome

Objective: To evaluate the effect of multiple applications of patellar taping over a longer period of time, alone and along with the application of therapeutic exercise on patella position and pain control in Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome (PFPS). Study Design: A different subject pretest-post test, experimental group design. Materials and Methods: Twenty-one subjects participated in the study. The subjects were randomly assigned to one of the three groups: Patellar taping combined with Close Kinetic Chain (CKC) exercise, Patellar taping only, and CKC exercise only (n = 7 in each group). Taping was applied and exercise was performed on a daily basis for three weeks. The measures were obtained on the Visual Analog Scale (VAS) for pain and lateral patellar displacement for patella position. Results: The paired t-test was used for within-group comparison of pre-test and post test measurement and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used for between-group comparisons of the three groups. The result of the study showed that the group receiving patellar taping and CKC exercise had better pain relief (p < .05) than the patellar taping only and CKC exercise only groups. There were no significant differences in terms of patella position in any of the group (p > .05). Conclusion: The combination of daily patella taping along with CKC exercise program for three weeks has been seen to be more effective than only patella taping and only the CKC exercise program, in reducing pain in patients with PFPS. Patella taping alone or in conjunction with CKC exercises is not able to bring any significant change in the patella position in patients with PFPS.