WESTPORT, Sep 20 (Reuters Health) - Patients with anterior knee pain benefit from proprioceptive muscle stretching and strengthening as part of physiotherapy, according to a report in the September issue of the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.

Dr. David Ian Clark, of the City Hospital Nottingham, UK, and colleagues studied 81 young adults who had anterior knee pain. The subjects were randomly assigned to receive stretching and strengthening exercise, taping and education; exercise and education; taping and education; or education only.

The team assessed the patients at 3 months and after 1 year, using the WOMAC lower limb function score and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale (HAD), as well as a visual analogue pain score.

At both time points, Dr. Clark and colleagues report, "all groups showed significant improvements in WOMAC, visual analogue and HAD scores." However, they found that "patients who exercised were significantly more likely to be discharged at 3 months than non-exercising patients."

Taping, according to the researchers, "was not significantly associated with discharge." They also noted that in those patients discharged, compared with those referred, there were "significantly greater improvements in WOMAC, visual analogue and the anxiety score (but not the depression score)."

Given their results, the team recommends that patients with anterior knee pain "should be considered for a course of physiotherapy which focuses on patient education and activity modification, with the addition of proprioceptive exercises and stretches."

(From Reuters Health)