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The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome

This page lists all 146 updates for one book on PainScience.com, The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome. See also:


showing of all-time updates

MSep 19The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Science update, patellar circulation — At last, some long-awaited new patellar circulation evidence, plus significant revision and other improvements, especially the addition of a new discussion about the therapeutic implications (does exercise improve circulation, mainly).
SMay 29The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Editing, multiple topics — Just editing, but a noteworthy batch of edits to several chapters. I made minor corrections and adjustments to every recently added or revised chapter, and some small but (I hope) meaningful clarifications to how “resting” is presented as a treatment strategy.
LMay 2The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — New sub-topic, patellofemoral joint replacement — Added a substantial discussion of patellofemoral joint replacement, and made a number of other modest improvements to the surgery chapter.
SApr 3The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Minor upgrades, patellofemoral joint pressure — After publishing part of this chapter as an excerpt, I made several minor improvements, and added one simple diagram.
LMar 5The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — New chapter, self-exam for patellofemoral joint tenderness.
LFeb 9The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — New section, gait retraining.
LDec 22The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — New content, tight IT band chapter — Added a fascinating and extreme case study that perfectly illustrates the potential relationship between ITBS and patellofemoral pain (though still exasperatingly unclear). Includes audio version.
LDec 20The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Revised and expanded, trigger points chapter — The section had been short and basic for many years, and many readers would never have guessed how much more I’ve written about this topic. It’s now more thorough and more in tune with the times, including the modern skeptical pespective on trigger points, and a more nuanced discussion of what role they might or might not have in patellofemoral pain.
SDec 19The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Minor editing, patellofemoral pain vs ITBS — Just a few little improvements, especially harmonizing with the IT band tightness chapter.
LDec 12The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Many improvements, differential diagnosis — After greatly expanding this chapter in 2022, it was a bit of a mess: thorough but disorganized. I eliminated some egregious rambling (was I drunk?).
MDec 9The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — New topic, analgesics chapter — Added a small section: “Be careful what you wish for: pain relief can be problematic.”
MDec 9The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Major revision, intro to diagnosis — I pretty much just started from scratch and re-wrote this chapter. It’s now better in all the ways, I think.
LDec 8The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — New section, criteria for discontinuing running.
LDec 8The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — New sub-topic, cartilage thickness — Added a substantive new sub-topic: “Built for pressure: How thick is the patellofemoral joint cartilage? And the patella?”
LDec 4The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Evidence update — Updated several references throughout the introductory sections, along with many related edits and improvements.
SAug '23The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Science update, strengthening — Added an important footnote with a bunch of detail about exactly what kind of strength training was tested by Hansen et al.
LAug '23The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Science update, new strengthening evidence — After almost a decade without a meaningful update, new evidence from Hansen et al has forced a rewrite of this chapter!
SJan '23The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Reorganization, differential diagnosis — Just a bit of housekeeping: rearranged the content and edited for clarity. Probably not enough, but it’s a start.
SJun '22The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Minor addition — Added a little information for cyclists about the effect of pedal crank length on knee loading.
LMay '22The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Major upgrade, differential diagnosis chapter — Added more detail and several more uncommon diagnoses to consider.
MJan '22The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Added sub-topic, ozone therapy — Added a discussion of ozone therapy, which just barely qualifies as a “regenerative” therapy, and my only advice is to avoid it, so it’s a minor addition here — but an interesting one.
L2021The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — New section, about plantaris hypertonia.
M2021The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Proofreading — Top-to-bottom check for typos and other minor errors. They creep in over the years as I work on updates to the book. A good three dozen of the little buggers identified and fixed this time.
M2021The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — More and better, thermotherapy section — It’s not an important sub-topic for patellofemoral pain, but it certainly deserved more and better advice than I had previously offered. An obsolete point or two removed, and a more modern perspective added.
M2020The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — New sub-topic — Added discussion of the (rather silly) idea that prolotherapy is a form of regenerative medicine.
L2020The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Major expansion — Added an introduction about regenerative medicine in general, a thorough discussion of autologous chondrocyte implantation, and some basic notes about stem cell therapy.
L2020The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Upgraded — Substantial revision and modernization, with more attention given to skeptical concerns about icing.
S2020The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Science update, introduction to exercise therapy — Added more about the rationale for exercise therapy, citing Fu.
M2020The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Addition — Added osteochondritis dissecans to the list of other diagnoses to consider.
S2020The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Minor addition, load management — Added sex to the list of activities that can involve potentially harmful knee stresses, depending on the position and, er, endurance.
M2020The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — New content, orthotics chapter — A minor but nice addition of information (and a story) about heels and heel lifts.
S2020The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Minor update, rest introduction — Added a couple small but good clarifications, and an amusing bit of perspective, in my never-ending quest to effectively explain the importance of rest.
S2020The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Added sub-topic, soft knee bracing — Expanded the scope of the section to include soft bracing as well as taping and strapping.
L2019The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Expansion — Previously this chapter was just about massage in general and foam rolling in particular. I’ve widened the scope to address the underlying assumption that there’s a need to “loosen” the quads, and now cover both stretch and massage.
M2019The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Minor addition, resting pitfalls — Added a brief discussion of an important principle: exercise is a pain-killer! Sometimes.
L2019The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — New section, all about joint noise.
S2019The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — New section, minor new sub-topic: Is it possible to exercise to recovery while still in some pain?
M2019The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Edited, worst-case scenarios with pushing through the pain — Just cleaned it up, clarified, made it less about runners exclusively.
L2019The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — New section, review of a popular video about “patellar release”
M2019The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Science update, regenerative medicine section — Added brief discussion of the poor state of evidence for stem cell therapy, citing Pas et al.
S2019The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Minor addition, resting strategy — Added sidebar about crutches and canes.
M2019The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Additions, differential diagnosis — After long neglect, I finally added some new points to this section, regarding tendinitis and infrapatellar fat pad impingement fat pad syndrome.
S2018The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Editing, strength section — Just making the same points a bit more clearly.
M2018The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Expanded, diagnosis section — Added discussion of plica syndrome.
S2018The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Additions — More detailed summary of the troubles with meniscectomy.
L2018The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — New section — A new standard chapter for most PainScience.com tutorials summarizing several key concepts about placebo.
S2017The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Science update — Cited and discussed Schandelmaier et al on low intensity pulse ultrasound for fracture/osteotomy healing.
S2017The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Science update, surgery chapter — Cited Siemieniuk — the British Medical Journal strongly denouncing the common athroscopic surgeries.
M2017The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Revision — Clarifications about the value of treating inflammation in principle.
M2017The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Science update, steroid injections — Significant science upgrade based on McAlindon et al.
M2017The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Upgrade — Shoes now have a section to themselves (orthotics discussed separately), and I made several improvements at the same time, mostly about spring-based shoes as a generic concept.
L2017The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Major upgrade — Much more detail and modernized references. The entire section is now dedicated to orthotics (and shoes have their own section, also upgraded).
L2017The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Major science update — I have reversed my position on vastus medialis isolation on the basis of new evidence.
M2016The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Science update — More information and citations about ineffective knee surgeries for context.
S2016The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Minor update — Cited van Gent 2007 on training volume and the “fine balance.”
S2016The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Minor update — Cited van Gent 2007 for perspective.
L2016The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Major update — Fully modernized risk and safety information about all over-the-counter analgesics.
S2016The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Science update — Significant revision in light of (finally!) good new evidence about natural running and injury prevention.
S2016The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Science update — Added a strong (and interesting) reference about surgical lavage and debridement.
M2015The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Science update — Added citations to shore up efficacy, and evidence that taping tinkers with knee sensation.
S2015The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Science update — Added more evidence showing no causal connection with hip weakness, plus related editing.
L2015The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — New section.
S2015The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — New links — Added links to several other relevant articles around the site, and most of those have been updated recently.
S2015The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Science update — Added strong evidence from Freedman et al that Q-angles aren’t worth measuring.
S2015The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Minor update — Added an interesting subsection about “fabella syndrome.”
S2014The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Correction — Reduced confidence in the results of a major study of special footwear (Knapik, the subject of the last update). Later removed the reference altogether.
L2014The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — New section — A short new section, finally, on PRP injections. I’ve also published a more detailed free article about this.
S2014The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Minor update — General editing, plus a stronger and clearer statement about targeting the vastus medialis.
S2014The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Minor update — General editing and polish, now that the dust has settled from the 2nd edition launch.
S2014The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Minor update — General editing and polish, now that the dust has settled from the 2nd edition launch.
L2014The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Major update — Extensive revision for the 2nd edition.
L2014The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Major update — Extensive revision for the 2nd edition.
L2014The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — New section — A new section for the 2nd edition.
L2014The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — New section — A new section for the 2nd edition.
L2014The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — New section — A new section for the 2nd edition.
L2014The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — New section — A new section for the 2nd edition.
M2014The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Updated — Significant revision and expansion for the 2nd edition.
L2014The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — New edition — Major revision of the book with the help of, Tony Ingram, PT, MSo. The new edition has a few new sections, a strong new focus on the value of judicious exercise therapy, and updated and expanded citations for many key points. Read more about the 2nd edition.
S2013The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Science update — Added another bad-news citation, and type of evidence.
S2013The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Science update — Added a bad-news citation. Sorry about that.
L2013The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — New section — Intriguing new evidence of circulatory impairment in PFPS patients.
L2013The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — New section.
M2013The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Science update — Added some science, to start building an evidence-based case for resting.
S2013The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Science update — Another good news science update: more about how surprisingly well knees handle running.
S2013The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Science update — Added a new study to the pile of evidence that abnormalities are common in healthy people and vice versa.
S2013The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Science update — A particularly “good news” science update about how running is, counterintuitively, actually pretty good for joints — not hard on them.
S2013The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Minor update — Added a reader anecdote about stretching the IT band helping her anterior knee pain.
S2013The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Minor update — Apt aging joints humour added, via comedian Louis CK.
S2013The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Minor update — Upgraded risk and safety information about Voltaren Gel.
S2012The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Science update — The writing was on the wall, but a new comprehensive review of knee lube jobs has confirmed that knee lube jobs are all washed. The section now reflects that.
S2012The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Science update — Two new studies of the connection between knee pain and the inner thigh muscles, showing … modest correlations of dubious significance.
S2012The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Minor update — Some customizing of “brain wrangling” for patellofemoral pain syndrome.
S2012The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Science update — Weak but interesting new evidence on natural running and injury prevention.
L2012The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Major update — Greatly expanded. Now offers a comprehensive summary of all treatment options: the good, the bad and the ugly.
L2012The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — New section — New standard section I’m introducing to most of the tutorials to “manage expectations.” Too many readers assume there’s going to be a specific miracle treatment plan.
L2012The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — New section — An important new section created as a direct response to reader demand.
M2012The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Medium update — Added a few paragraphs about foam rolling and trying to “elongate” the IT band.
S2012The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Science update — A minor but interesting new item about high heels.
L2012The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — New section.
S2012The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Minor update — Another nice swimming update: I added some excellent perspective from an experienced competitive swimmer.
S2012The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Minor update — Very simple swimming tip added. Hat tip to reader Eric C.
M2012The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Updated — Answered some common reader concerns about planning.
M2012The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Updated — Bone scans and the reason for getting them are now described much more thoroughly. Added some new science confirming that many PFPS knees are “hot.”
L2012The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Major update — Expanded and heavily edited. In particular, the concept of a “diagnosis of exclusion” is now explained thoroughly.
L2011The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — New section.
L2011The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — New section — Not a beefy update: just a few quick thoughts about heat.
S2011The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Minor update — Addressed some common fears about the threat of getting out of shape while resting.
S2011The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Minor update — Added reference to Kong et al, about the effect of shoe wear.
L2011The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — New section — Expanded the section so much that it’s effectively new. It was just a single paragraph about orthotics. Now it is a much more thorough discussion of orthotics, shoes, and impact reduction.
S2011The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Minor update — Added a reference about the poor overall quality of online information about common injuries. See Starman.
S2011The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Minor update — Added an item about swimming to the “activities that may strain the knee” chart.
L2011The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Major update — Major improvements to the table of contents, and the display of information about updates like this one. Sections now have numbers for easier reference and bookmarking. The structure of the document has really been cleaned up in general, making it significantly easier for me to update the tutorial — which will translate into more good content for readers. Care for more detail? Really? Here’s the full announcement.
L2011The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — New section — Finally, long overdue, a new section on this topic (for all the running injury tutorials, in fact).
M2011The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Important new info — Where’s the fire? Recently I published a major new article about repetitive strain injuries, in which I explain that these injuries are rarely actually inflamed. Instead of being “on fire,” excessively stressed tissues tend to break down without inflammation — a kind of rot. For the full scoop on inflammation and repetitive strain injuries, see: Guide to Repetitive Strain Injuries: Five surprising and important ideas about repetitive strain injuries for patients and professionals.
L2010The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — New section — New short section for both this book and the iliotibial band syndrome book covering potentially confusing alternative diagnoses, such as popliteal artery entrapment syndrome (PAES).
S2010The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Minor update — Added some data on the incidence of PFPS in cyclists.
S2010The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — New cover — At last! E-book finally has a “cover.”
L2010The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — New section.
L2010The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Major improvements — Substantial changes related to new science summarized in Am I wrong? An update on the conventional wisdom.
L2010The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Major improvements — Substantial changes related to new science summarized in Am I wrong? An update on the conventional wisdom.
L2010The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Major improvements — Substantial changes related to new science summarized in Am I wrong? An update on the conventional wisdom.
L2010The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — New section — A flurry of substantive updates and re-writing today inspired by some new scientific papers.
L2010The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — New section.
L2010The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — New section.
S2010The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Minor update — Miscellaneous upgrades, and a nice anecdote from a reader
S2010The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Minor update — Added thoughts about the effect of and some other minor updates.
L2009The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Another new section, practically on top of the last one, , along with a substantial new article offering more detail about ultrasound in general, Does Ultrasound or Shockwave Therapy Work?. I put a considerable amount of research into this topic, and so there are also 34 new records in the bibliography for ultrasound.
L2009The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Updated the tutorial this morning with a new section, “
M2009The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Added much more discussion of the study of patellar alignment assessment originally added back in June, in the section .
M2009The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Added information about an interesting reference to a study showing that clinicians can’t agree on patellar tracking syndrome diagnoses (poor inter-rater reliability) — which I always knew, but it’s nice to see some strong scientific evidence of it.
L2009The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — New section: “
L2009The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — The visual design of the site was upgraded over the past several days. Although this is not an update to the content of this tutorial, it is nevertheless a significant upgrade for all of them — like publishing new editions of books with better typesetting and layout. The new design is even cleaner and reader-friendly; it now looks that good in most web browsers; and pages load as much as 50% faster. Many under-the-hood improvements will make it much easier for me to improve tutorial content. The tutorials are now well-oiled machines of digital publishing goodness.
L2009The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Major restructuring and editing of several sections related to therapies based on the assumption of a tracking problem. See the new section, “.” Particularly noteworthy was the addition of important new evidence from a 2008 paper in American Journal of Sports Medicine showing that a combination of strengthening, stretching and coordination exercises were ineffective at preventing patellofemoral pain syndrome.
L2009The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Added a small new section about Traumeel, a popular but questionable remedy that I often get asked about. See the section, “,” or the free article, Does Arnica Gel Work for Pain?.
M2008The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — The New England Journal of Medicine just published two fascinating new papers about knee pain, knee osteoarthritis, and knee surgery. I was really pleased to see these papers, because they provide clear and definite scientific support for many key points I’ve made in this tutorial. Kirkley et al’s paper about surgery for osteoarthritis and Englund et al’s fascinating findings about torn menisci have been added to the tutorial.
M2008The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Added information about taping to the section “.”
M2008The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Revised the first several sections quite thoroughly to make them more clear and readable.
L2007The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Addition of several new sections, a table of contents (finally), and several new images and pull quotes to make it nicer and clearer to read.
L2007The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Release of major new version of the article, almost three times as long. All traces of “structuralism” have been removed. Much more detailed and useful exploration of the causes of PFPS has been added, as well as many vital new sections of self-treatment. Many more improvements to the document are due over the next couple weeks as this version gets polished.
M2007The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Expanded several of the introductory sections, added the humourous “graphical definition” of PFPS, and expanded the explanation of patellofemoral tracking syndrome and added the “wide hips” diagram. Added detailed treatment section on , with numerous new footnotes. More major changes are due shortly.
L2007The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Added section to aid readers in determining the difference between these similar conditions.
L2007The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — Major changes underway working towards a full revision. Started by converting footnotes to new database-driven format. You can now link from footnotes to the database for more complete information about references.

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