Short foot exercise may decrease patellofemoral pain and improve function, stability
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Key takeaways:
- Short foot exercise to address intrinsic muscle weakness relieved patellofemoral pain and improved function and stability.
- Results were compared with patients who performed only hip and knee exercises.
According to published results, the addition of short foot exercise to a rehabilitation protocol for patients with patellofemoral pain syndrome decreased pain scores and improved function and stability.
Between May 2022 and August 2023, researchers randomly assigned matched patients with patellofemoral pain syndrome to receive either short foot exercise in addition to hip and knee exercise (n=14) or only hip and knee exercise (n = 14). Researchers defined short foot exercise as active exercises that address intrinsic foot muscle weakness when pronated by promoting overall muscle strength, reduced foot pronation and enhanced longitudinal and transverse arches.
According to the study, all patients received 12 intervention sessions during the course of 6 weeks. Outcome measures included abductor quadriceps muscle strength, which was assessed using a hand-held dynamometer, VAS pain scores, anterior knee pain scale, mediolateral stability index and balance, which was assessed using the Biodex Balance System (Biodex).
After the 6-week intervention, researchers found patients who performed short foot exercises had better improvements in VAS pain scores, anterior knee pain scale and mediolateral stability compared with the control group. VAS pain scores decreased from 5.8 to 0.7 in the short foot exercise group and from 6.2 to 3.3 in the control group. Anterior knee pain scale increased from 79.6 to 96.6 in the short foot exercise group and from 81 to 92.6 in the control group. Researchers noted these between-group differences were statistically significant.
Researchers found patients who performed short foot exercises had better improvements in hip abductor strength, quadriceps muscle strength and balance; however, they noted the between-group differences were not statistically significant.
“This can help clinicians improve their treatment program for patellofemoral pain syndrome patients to achieve better results with them, decrease recurrence rate and improve disease prognosis,” the researchers wrote in the study.
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