Effectiveness of Interventions Aimed at Changing Movement Patterns in People With Patellofemoral Pain: A Systematic Review With Network Meta-analysis

OBJECTIVE: To summarize the effectiveness of interventions for changing movement during weight-bearing functional tasks in people with patellofemoral pain (PFP). DESIGN: Systematic review with network meta-analysis (NMA). LITERATURE SEARCH: Medline, Embase, CINAHL, SPORTDiscus, and Cochrane Library were searched from inception up to May 2023. STUDY SELECTION CRITERIA: Randomized controlled trials involving people with PFP and nonsurgical, nonpharmacological interventions on task kinematics were included. DATA SYNTHESIS: NMA was conducted for frontal knee movement data, and pairwise meta-analysis was used to pool data when NMA was not possible. Reduced movements were those changes that indicated movements occurring with less amplitude. The GRADE approach was used to grade the certainty of the evidence. RESULTS: Thirty-seven trials were included (n = 1235 participants). Combining knee/hip exercises with internal feedback had the strongest effect on reducing frontal knee movements (standardized mean difference [SMD] from NMA = −2.66; GRADE: moderate evidence). On pairwise comparisons, the same combination of interventions reduced frontal hip movements (SMD = −0.47; GRADE: moderate evidence) and increased sagittal knee movements (SMD = 1.03; GRADE: moderate evidence), with no effects on sagittal hip movements (GRADE: very low evidence), compared to knee/hip exercises alone. There was no effect for single applications of braces on the frontal knee movement (GRADE: very low evidence) and taping on movements of the knee, hip, and ankle (GRADE: very low to low evidence) compared to no intervention. CONCLUSION: Knee/hip exercises combined with internal feedback techniques may change knee and hip movements in people with PFP. The combination of these interventions can reduce frontal knee and hip movements, and can increase sagittal knee movements. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther 2023;53(12):748-760. Epub 14 September 2023. doi:10.2519/jospt.2023.11956