The effect of electrostimulation and high load exercises in patients with patellofemoral joint dysfunction. A preliminary report

Traditional conservative treatment for patellar disorders is successful in about 80 percents of cases. We introduced two new conservative treatment pr otocols for patellar pathology in order to further improve the success rate . The first protocol consisted of high load/low repetition quadriceps femor is training (10 patients) while the second enclosed selective electrostimul ation of vastus medialis muscle (7 patients). Results were evaluated clinic ally and neurophysiologically. High load/low repetition training resulted in significant increase of maxim al voluntary contraction of quadriceps muscle (P < 0.001). Significant gain of Activity (P = 0.017) and Kujala scores (P = 0.07) was observed in group with high load/low repetition quadriceps training compared to patients wit h electrostimulation. There was no significant change in neurophysiological or clinical status between the beginning and the end of treatment with ele ctrostimulation. Our results indicate that high load/low repetition quadric eps femoris training poses an important alternative to traditional conserva tive treatment protocol for patellar disorders.