An Investigation of the Lower Extremity Kinematics During stair ambulation in people with ‎patellofemoral pain syndrome: A Systematic Review

Patellofemoral pain (PFPS) is considered as one of the most common reasons of knee pain with unknown cause and numerous biomechanical factors. Since patients report pain and functional constraints 5 to 8 years after treatment, therefore investigation of the lower limb kinematics during stair ambulation is necessary to determine compensatory mechanisms and the effectiveness of treatment interventions. The aim of the present review is to investigate the lower extremity kinematics during stair ambulation in people with PFPS.

The search articles from various databases Pubmed, Science Direct, Elsevier, Springer and articles about the years 2000 up to 2018 were extracted. To extract the articles, the following keywords have been used: PFPS, Hip adduction ، Rear foot eversion, Flexion knee. Finally, 1200 articles were found and after reviewing the abstract and titles of articles, 240 articles were selected for the next review. Then, considering the main subject of the present study and inclusion/ exclusion criteria, 10 articles were selected for final investigation.

The 10 extracted articles examined the kinematics of three sections: proximal, local, and distal during stair descent in PFPS patients.

According to the results of this study, changes in lower extremity kinematics during stairs ambulation will ultimately lead to an increase of reaction force and pressure in PFJ, which is one of main causes of development and pathology of PFPS Therefore, treatment interventions that comprehensively address changes in kinematics resulted in greater effectiveness in improving clinical symptoms for a long time.