Your Body - Knee Pain / Knee Injury

Patellar Tendonitis - Jumper's Knee

What is Patellar Tendonitis?

As with all cases of tendonitis, patella tendonitis is simply the inflammation, degeneration or rupture of the patellar tendon and the tissue that surround it, leading to pain and discomfort in the area just below the knee cap.

What causes Patellar Tendonitis?

Overuse is the major cause of patellar tendonitis. Activities that involve a lot of jumping or rapid change of direction are particularly stressful to the patellar ligament. Participants of basketball, volleyball, football, and other running related sports are particularly vulnerable to patellar tendonitis.

Patellar tendonitis can also be caused by a sudden, unexpected injury like a fall. Landing heavily on your knees can damage the patellar ligament, which can lead to patellar tendonitis.

What are the Signs & Symptoms of Patellar Tendonitis?

The major symptom of patellar tendonitis is pain in the area just below the kneecap. Activities like walking, running and especially squatting, kneeling or jumping will cause increased pain and discomfort. Swelling is also commonly associated with patellar tendonitis.

Chondromalacia Patellae

What is Chondromalacia patellae?

Chondromalacia literally means "softening of the cartilage", and Patellae means "the knee-cap". So Chondromalacia patellae means "softening of the articular cartilage of the knee-cap." This is the cartilage lining under the knee-cap that joins with the knee joint. What are the symptoms?

The pain comes and goes, but usually with squatting, kneeling, and negotiating steps, especially going down the stairs. You may be engaged in strenuous sports, but experiences pain with repeated bending of the knees. Although girls are more often affected, boys can have this problem too.

At this stage, there is no breakdown of the cartilage of the patella yet, and is totally reversible. In fact, many medical practitioners may not use the term "chondromalacia patellae" at this stage, because there is no actual softening or breakdown of the cartilage. A more appropriate diagnosis would be "Anterior knee pain syndrome" or "Patellofemoral stress syndrome".