Knee Cap Pain: The FOHX trial explained and an Expert Panel Q&A

About this Event

Part 1

Presentation: The FOHX trial: foot orthoses and hip exercises have proven efficacy in managing patellofemoral pain: but can we predict who will benefit? [30 minutes & 15 minutes QA]

Presenter: Dr Mark Matthews (Ulster University, Northern Ireland)

Mark graduated from the University of Otago, New Zealand and has since gained extensive international clinical experience across a variety of public and private health systems. He has been fortunate enough to work with a variety of sport teams and athletes, including work with New Zealand Cycling at World championships, Commonwealth and Olympic Games, and currently with a professional ice hockey team. Driven by clinical curiosity, Mark’s ongoing learning has included undertaking a Masters of Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy at the University of Queensland.

This evolved into the undertaking of doctoral research into lower limb injuries, particularly optimising management for patellofemoral pain. Mark’s ongoing research, teaching and areas of interest focus on clinical reasoning and optimising management for sports injuries, from weekend warriors to professional athletes. Mark is a lecturer, and course director, for the Masters of Sports and Exercise medicine, at Ulster University School of Sport, and leads collaborative research projects on sports injuries, including concussion in Rugby Union.

Mark will present his recently published clinical trial – the largest and most recent one done in Australia and Denmark – on kneecap pain treated by foot orthotics or hip exercises. The novel thing about this study was that it was set up to examine if we could predict who would benefit from the foot orthotics. Could we predict those who had more mobile feet got better effects with foot orthoses compared to hip exercises? This is a common clinical conundrum that needs to be explored. Another issue is deciding if prescribing hip exercises or foot orthoses is best - this was also studied.

Part 2

International panel Q&A on all things patellofemoral pain

Panel members:

• Kay Crossley [ Director of the La Trobe Sport and Exercise Medicine Research Centre, La Trobe University, Australia]
• Bradley Neale [Research Fellow, Sports & Exercise Medicine, Queen Mary University of London and Specialist Musculoskeletal Physiotherapist & Head of Research, Pure Sports Medicine, London, UK]
• Michael Skovdal Rathleff [Professor, Faculty of Medicine, Musculoskeletal Health, Centre for General Practice at Aalborg University, Denmark]
• Claire Roberson [Principal Clinician, Wimbledon Clinics & Claire Patella, UK]

Convenor/Moderator:

• Bill Vicenzino (University of Queensland, Australia)

Some matters to be considered in addition to your questions:

• Is muscle strengthening important for improving pain in PFP?
• Are active treatments really better than passive ones?
• Is foot posture or mobility important when we prescribe foot orthoses?
• Does retraining the way we walk and run matter?
• What are the psychological impacts of kneecap pain and do they matter?
• Do we really know the cause of kneecap pain? ...and if we do not how can we treat it?

There will be ample time for discussion, questions and answers.