Patellofemoral syndrome causes pain at the behind or around the kneecap that can be aggravated by running. It’s cause is unknown, but it is correlated with certain problematic features of running gait, such as amount of hip adduction and inward rotation of the knee during stance phase, and what is called “contralateral pelvic drop,” which essentially refers to the the amount the hip opposite the load bearing hip drops when the load bearing hip is under load. These same features correlate to other pain/overuse syndromes in runners as well, such as iliotibial band syndrome, and also contribute to overpronation of the foot.
The link below is to the abstract (short summary) of an article published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine which demonstrates that learned changes in gait to reduce the severity of the problematic features of running gait is associated with reduction and pain and improvements in function of the knee of people affected by patellofemoral syndrome. An additional benefit fo the retraining was a noted 18% reduction in the instantaneous and 20% reduction in average load rates at the knee. Load rate is the speed at which a load is presented to the the knee, in this case – or a measure of impact force transmitted to the knee due to the foot striking the ground under load.
The results support the assertion by many that learned improvements in biomechanics of the hips, where many of the problems that underlie patellofemoral and other pain or overuse syndromes experienced by runners, not only result in reduced patellofemoral pain, but also in improved function (shock absorption) along the entire kinetic chain involved in running gait.
I can provide the link to the publication’s abstract here, but in order to see the full article, you will likely need to visit a University library or purchase a full-text version from the publisher (sorry).
The effect of real-time gait retraining on hip kin… [Br J Sports Med. 2010] – PubMed result.
