Surgical treatment of iliotibial band friction syndrome. A retrospective study of 45 patients
One page on PainSci cites Drogset 1999: The Complete Guide to IT Band Syndrome
PainSci commentary on Drogset 1999: ?This page is one of thousands in the PainScience.com bibliography. It is not a general article: it is focused on a single scientific paper, and it may provide only just enough context for the summary to make sense. Links to other papers and more general information are provided wherever possible.
From the abstract: “ … surgical treatment of iliotibial band friction syndrome produces good results in patients with insufficient relief of symptoms after conservative treatment.” Almost 50% had excellent results, another 35% had good results, and only one patient had a negative result. However, this should be contrasted with much better results reported by Michels and Hariri, using newer arthroscopic techniques.
original abstract †Abstracts here may not perfectly match originals, for a variety of technical and practical reasons. Some abstacts are truncated for my purposes here, if they are particularly long-winded and unhelpful. I occasionally add clarifying notes. And I make some minor corrections.
Iliotibial band friction syndrome is an overuse injury mainly affecting runners, but also other athletes. The treatment of choice is conservative. If this treatment is unsuccessful, surgical treatment can be performed. The posterior half of the iliotibial band is transsected where it passes over the lateral epicondyle of the femur. Optionally the underlying bursa is removed. Between 1989 and 1996 45 patients were operated in Trondheim. The mean age was 27 (14-46) years. Of the patients, 22 (48.9%) had excellent results, 16 (35.5%) had good results, 6 (13.3%) had fair results and 1 (2.2%) patient had a poor result. One patient had a minor postoperative infection. Had the postoperative result been known beforehand, 75.6% of the patients would have been operated on again. We conclude that surgical treatment of iliotibial band friction syndrome produces good results in patients with insufficient relief of symptoms after conservative treatment.
related content
- “An arthroscopic technique to treat the iliotibial band syndrome,” Michels et al, Knee Surgery, Sports Traumatology, Arthroscopy, 2009.
- “The iliotibial band syndrome treated with an arthroscopic technique in 40 patients,” Michels et al, ScienceMED, 2011.
- “Treatment of recalcitrant iliotibial band friction syndrome with open iliotibial band bursectomy: indications, technique, and clinical outcomes,” Hariri et al, American Journal of Sports Medicine, 2009.
This page is part of the PainScience BIBLIOGRAPHY, which contains plain language summaries of thousands of scientific papers & others sources. It’s like a highly specialized blog. A few highlights:
- Common interventional procedures for chronic non-cancer spine pain: a systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomised trials. Wang 2025 BMJ.
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- Classical Conditioning Fails to Elicit Allodynia in an Experimental Study with Healthy Humans. Madden 2017 Pain Med.
- Topical glyceryl trinitrate (GTN) and eccentric exercises in the treatment of mid-portion achilles tendinopathy (the NEAT trial): a randomised double-blind placebo-controlled trial. Kirwan 2024 Br J Sports Med.
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