Management of the Patient with Patellofemoral Pain: An Update on a Clinical Practice Guideline

Presentation Handout

Speaker: Lisa T. Hoglund, PT, PhD, Professor, Department of Physical Therapy, Thomas Jefferson University

Patellofemoral pain (PFP) is a common condition among adolescents and adults that causes significant pain, reduced function, and reduced physical activity. PFP is the number one cause of pain in runners. Even more concerning, PFP is often chronic, frequently recurs, and may lead to development of patellofemoral osteoarthritis. One challenge to healthcare practitioners when treating patients with PFP is that it is not a homogenous condition. Similar to low back pain, not all patients with PFP have the same impairments or respond to the same treatment. The Patellofemoral Pain Clinical Practice Guideline (CPG), published by the Academy of Orthopaedic Physical Therapy, summarized the scientific evidence and can be used as an evidence-based guide for management of patients with PFP. This course will review and apply the PFP CPG evidence to a patient case to demonstrate use of proposed PFP subcategories to guide clinical decision making. Information related to patellofemoral osteoarthritis and sex-related differences for patients with PFP will also be covered.

Learning Objectives:

By the end of this session, the learner will be able to:

• Describe evidence-based criteria for diagnosis of patellofemoral pain (PFP)
• Choose clinically-relevant tests and measures, with the best psychometric properties, to enhance clinical decision-making when treating individuals with PFP and patellofemoral osteoarthritis
• Describe impairment- and function-based subcategories of PFP, to improve targeted patient management
• Select evidence-based interventions appropriate for specific PFP subcategories and patellofemoral osteoarthritis
• Given a patient case, classify the patient according to PFP subcategory diagnosis

Brief Biography

Lisa T. Hoglund, PT, PhD is a Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy at Thomas Jefferson University (TJU) in Philadelphia, PA. At TJU, Dr. Hoglund teaches courses in musculoskeletal physical therapy, differential diagnosis, and pathophysiology of musculoskeletal conditions. Dr. Hoglund’s research focuses on the biomechanical factors, outcome measurement, and conservative management of patellofemoral pain and knee osteoarthritis. She has received both external and internal funding to support her research and has published and presented her research findings nationally and internationally. To date, Dr. Hoglund has 12 peer-reviewed publications and over 20 peer-reviewed published abstracts. She received the 2018 Best Research Presentation Award at the Annual Conference of the Pennsylvania Physical Therapy Association for her research presentation: “The 30-second fast-walk test: a reliable and valid measure of walking performance in persons with knee osteoarthritis.” Dr. Hoglund has practiced clinically for more than 30 years and is a board-certified orthopaedic clinical specialist (OCS).