Part of Patellar tendinopathy

Do patellar tendon straps and braces help jumper's knee?

A patellar tendon strap can make jumping and running hurt less while you are doing them, and that is about as far as the evidence goes. In the only randomized trial of this question with a placebo arm, 97 athletes with patellar tendinopathy were tested on a single leg decline squat and two jump tests under four conditions, a strap, sports tape, placebo tape and no support, and then played their sport as usual for two weeks, wearing their assigned condition for one of those weeks: on the decline squat the strap and the tape both reduced pain compared with no support, and neither beat the placebo tape (de Vries and colleagues, 2016). Two hours after sport, the strap, the tape and the placebo tape all reduced pain. Read that honestly and it says the relief is real and the reason for it is uncertain, which is a fair basis for buying one and no basis at all for expecting it to treat the tendon. So a strap is closer to a painkiller you wear than to a treatment. It changes how the knee feels today, while the loading program is what changes how much the tendon can take in three months, and wearing a strap so that you can keep training on a tendon that is getting worse is how a short problem turns into a long one. For a teenager with Osgood-Schlatter disease, the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons lists a strap of this kind among the things a doctor may suggest, worn over the middle of the tendon between the bottom of the kneecap and the bump on the shin, and a growing knee is worth having assessed before you buy anything for it. Two readers need something before they buy one. If this knee has been operated on, nothing goes on it, strap, sleeve or tape, until your surgical team has said so, and the section on braces after a repair or a replacement is the part of this page that is yours. If you have reduced feeling or poor circulation in the leg or foot, from diabetes or any other cause, have the fit checked by a clinician, because the signs this page tells you to watch for are ones you may not feel.

Warning signs, and when to get help

Do patellar tendon straps work?

For pain, yes, a bit, and for the tendon itself nobody has shown that they do anything at all.

That is an uncomfortable answer to give someone who is about to spend money, so here is where it comes from. One randomized trial has tested this properly in patellar tendinopathy. de Vries and colleagues (2016) recruited 97 athletes, mean age 27. Each of them was tested on a single leg decline squat, which is the load test for this tendon, and on two jump tests, under all four conditions in turn: a patellar strap, sports tape, placebo tape and no support. They then carried on with their sport for two weeks, wearing the one condition they had been assigned for one of those weeks.

On the decline squat the strap reduced pain by about 14 mm on a visual scale and the sports tape by about 13 mm, compared with no support. Against the placebo tape, neither won.

During sport, the reductions that reached significance were in the sports tape and the placebo tape conditions. Two hours after sport, the strap, the tape and the placebo tape all reduced pain. The authors' own conclusion is worth reading slowly: wearing an orthosis during sport, including placebo tape, can reduce pain in the short term.

So something about putting a band around the knee helps, and the trial could not show that it matters much which band. That is not a reason to skip the strap. It is a reason to buy a cheap one, expect an hour of comfort rather than a cure, and keep your attention on the patellar tendinopathy program.

What a strap may be doing

There is a mechanical story behind the strap, and it comes with limits attached.

Lavagnino and colleagues (2011) took weight bearing and non weight bearing knee X-rays of 20 adult men at 60 degrees of bend, with and without one of two infrapatellar straps. They measured the angle between the kneecap and its tendon and the length of the tendon, fed those measurements into a computational model, and estimated the strain at the spot where the jumper's knee lesion sits during a simulated jump landing. The straps lowered the predicted strain, both average and maximum, in most of the men, by increasing that angle, shortening the tendon, or both. Their conclusion was that straps may limit excessive strain at that spot by changing the geometry of the tendon, rather than by correcting anything wrong with the knee.

Keep those limits in view. It is a model built on measurements from radiographs, in 20 men with no knee problem and no tendon abnormality. Nobody put a strain gauge in a living patellar tendon, and nobody followed those men to see whether their knees did better.

The paper does give percentages, and they are the numbers you will meet quoted on product pages. Among the men in whom the model predicted a fall in strain, the average fall was 34.0 percent for one of the two straps tested and 19.6 percent for the other, with individual results running from under 1 percent to over 85 percent. Three of the twenty got no predicted reduction from either strap. Those figures describe estimated strain in a model of a healthy knee, not pain, not function and not recovery, so a strap sold on the strength of one of them is being sold on an estimate rather than a result.

What the trials actually found

Two findings came out of that trial, and they have to be read together.

The first is that straps and tape genuinely reduce pain during a loaded knee bend, by a margin that an athlete would notice. The second is that placebo tape did the same thing. Both come from the same trial, and taking only the first is how a reasonable product becomes an overclaimed one.

What that pair means in the clinic is simple enough. Use the strap as a comfort measure for a session or a shift, judge it by whether you actually feel better in it, and do not treat the relief as evidence that the tendon is being protected. If the only way you can finish a match is strapped up, the message is about the match, not the strap.

Where should a patellar tendon strap sit?

In the gap between the bottom of the kneecap and the bony bump on the shin, over the middle of the tendon.

The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons gives the placement plainly in its Osgood-Schlatter material: a band at the top of the leg, lying across the middle of the patellar tendon, in the gap that runs between the lower tip of the kneecap and the tibial tubercle. Sit on a chair with the knee bent to find it. Run a finger down off the lower tip of the kneecap and you drop into a soft hollow before you reach the bump. That hollow is where the band belongs.

Two placements go wrong often enough to mention. High, across the kneecap itself, where the strap is sitting on bone and doing nothing to the tendon. And low, directly on the bony bump, which in a teenager is the painful spot you are trying to leave alone.

Snug is the right tension. A strap that leaves a deep groove, makes the shin or foot tingle, or has to be hauled tight to stay in place is too tight or the wrong size, and the answer is a different strap rather than a looser one that slides. Take it off when any of that happens, then and there, instead of letting out a notch and carrying on. Fasten it sitting with the knee bent, then stand up, walk a few steps, bend the knee once and check it again, because a band that feels fine on a still leg is the one that bites when the knee starts working. Those checks all rely on feeling the leg, so if yours has reduced feeling or poor circulation, from diabetes or any other cause, get the fit looked at by a clinician rather than judging it yourself.

Strap, sleeve or brace?

Four different items get sold for the same complaint and they are not interchangeable.

A patellar tendon strap is a narrow band across one tendon. A sleeve is a tube that gives warmth and even compression across the whole knee, which suits an aching but stable joint. A hinged brace is built for a knee that feels unstable after a ligament injury. An unloader brace shifts load away from one side of a worn joint and has to be measured and fitted by someone trained to do it, which is why it is in a different price bracket.

Only the first of those four is aimed at the tendon. No guideline we have read recommends a brace for patellar tendinopathy, and the brace evidence that does exist belongs to other problems: our pages on knee braces for arthritis and knee braces for a meniscus tear set out what the trials in those conditions actually found. If your knee gives way, catches or locks, that is a different question from this one and it needs assessing rather than strapping, as the warning list at the foot of this page explains.

Taping instead of a strap

Tape did as well as the strap in the one trial that compared them, so cost and convenience can decide it.

In de Vries and colleagues (2016), sports tape reduced pain on the decline squat by about the same amount as the strap, and during sport it was the tape rather than the strap that reached significance. Tape has to be reapplied, sticks less well on sweaty skin and can irritate it. A strap goes on in five seconds and lasts a season. Neither has an advantage worth arguing about on the evidence we have.

The placebo arm earns one more sentence. If placebo tape works about as well as the real thing, then the skill of the application is probably not what you are paying for, which is a useful thing to know before booking repeat appointments for taping.

Straps for a teenager with Osgood-Schlatter

This is one of the commonest reasons people search for a strap, and the answer is different from the adult one.

Pain below the kneecap in a child or teenager who is still growing usually comes from a growth center where the tendon attaches rather than from the tendon in between. Osgood-Schlatter disease is the version at the bony bump on the shin, and jumper's knee or Osgood-Schlatter in a teenager walks through how the two are told apart, along with the third condition that sits at the lower tip of the kneecap. The same traction story at the back of the heel is Sever's disease, and the strap question comes up there too.

The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons lists a patellar tendon strap among the additional treatments a doctor may recommend for Osgood-Schlatter disease, with the placement described above. There is very little research on it in this age group, so treat it as a comfort measure that some children like and others find irritating.

What the evidence does support is less exciting and matters more. A systematic review of treatments in children and adolescents with patellar tendon related pain found no evidence supporting specific types of exercise, and advised clinicians to include load modification and to base the return to sport on symptoms (Cairns and colleagues, 2018). The same organization is clear that continued participation will not cause long-term damage to the knee and that it is safe for children to take part in activities as tolerated, while noting that a child who is limping or has a lot of pain even at rest may need to cut back for a while. A new limp is the exception to that reassurance: it needs a doctor the same day, as the warning list below sets out, because some hip problems in growing children are felt in the knee.

Get a growing knee looked at before you buy anything for it. A strap bought instead of an assessment is the one use of it we would argue against.

When a strap is worth wearing

There are situations where a wearable painkiller is exactly the right tool.

None of what follows applies to a knee that has been operated on. If you have had surgery on this knee, read the section on braces after a repair or a replacement below before you put anything on it.

A fixture you have decided to play. A tournament in the middle of a season you cannot simply stop. A shift with four flights of stairs in it. A week where cutting training further is not realistic and you want the knee to shout less while you get through it. In all of those, a strap that takes the edge off is a reasonable thing to use, and the trial supports precisely that short term use.

Judge it the way you would judge any other analgesic. Does it help, in the task you bought it for, when you actually wear it? If the honest answer after two weeks is no, stop wearing it, and spend the attention on the load instead. Our pain monitoring model guide sets out the next morning check that tells you whether the week's load was sensible, and that check is more informative than how the knee felt mid session, strapped or not.

What a strap must not replace

The loading program, and the decision to take load off for a while when the tendon needs it.

A tendon changes what it can tolerate by being loaded progressively over months. Malliaras and colleagues (2015) describe treatment as building the load tolerance of the tendon, the thigh muscles and the rest of the leg step by step, while dealing with whatever is overloading it, and they caution against relying on passive treatments. A strap is a passive treatment. It belongs with ice and painkillers in that respect: useful, and not the thing that changes the trajectory.

The specific harm is not the strap itself but the permission it gives. A strap can make a training session feel manageable on a tendon that is heading the wrong way, and the next morning tells the truth that the session hid. If your pain has been stuck for months, the strap is not the variable to change, and why your patellar tendonitis is not healing goes through the reasons that usually are.

Braces after a patellar tendon repair or a knee replacement

If you have had an operation on this knee, the only brace that matters is the one your surgical team gave you.

After a patellar tendon repair the knee is held still deliberately while the repair heals. The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons describes the repair as most likely protected with a knee immobilizer or, rarely, a long leg cast, with weight bearing allowed using a brace and crutches, or a walker, and the leg held in a straight position, starting in some cases with toe touch weight bearing. The straight leg part is not a detail. What holds a repaired tendon together in the early weeks is the knee not bending, so the brace is unlocked in stages by your surgeon or therapist and never by you, and how much weight goes through the leg moves on their schedule rather than on how the knee feels that morning.

We give no week by week numbers here, deliberately. OrthoInfo's own figures are qualified by your tear, your repair and your surgeon's recommendations, and surgeons genuinely differ on this operation: most protect motion early on, while some prescribe what it calls an immediate motion protocol, a more aggressive approach that is not right for everyone. Two people with the same operation can be given different limits and both be correct. The only timeline that applies to you is the one on your own discharge sheet, and if you do not have it in writing, ring the team and ask them for it.

That device, its settings and the limits on bending and weight bearing that come with it are the treatment. A strap bought online is not a substitute for any part of it, and nothing on this page overrides the plan you were given.

Two practical points for anyone recovering from surgery, and the first one is broader than it first looks.

Do not wear a strap, a sleeve or tape on an operated knee until your surgical team has said it is fine, rather than only keeping it off a wound that has not healed. The reasons stack up. An infrapatellar strap presses on the exact stretch of tendon that a patellar tendon repair is holding together, and nobody has tested what that pressure does to a repair or to the sutures or anchors fixing it to the kneecap. After a knee replacement the incision runs down the front of the knee, under the same band. A tight band around a leg that is still swelling can mark or break healing skin, and because it covers the front of the knee it hides swelling, redness and wound leaking, which are the things you have been asked to watch for. Nothing goes under or over an immobilizer, a brace or a cast unless the team that fitted it put it there. If you want something for comfort, ask them, which is also the only honest answer available: there is no trial of straps after either of these operations.

Do not use a strap to get through an activity your team has asked you to avoid. A repaired tendon can tear again, and it can pull away from the kneecap, both of which OrthoInfo lists among the complications of the operation. The brace and the limits exist because a knee that was meant to stay straight being bent or loaded without warning, in a stumble, on the stairs, getting out of a low chair or kneeling, is the kind of load a healing repair cannot hold. A strap that takes the edge off the pain changes none of that.

After a knee replacement both rules apply in the same way, and total knee replacement rehab covers that recovery. Anything new in an operated knee, new pain, swelling, heat, redness or a knee that suddenly will not straighten, goes to the surgical team the same day rather than into a search box, for the reasons set out in the warning list below. The same list covers a brace or cast that starts to hurt, feel tight or mark the skin, which goes back to the team that fitted it rather than being padded or loosened at home.

How long should you wear one?

For the task, and then take it off. Nobody has tested longer than that.

The trial wore each support for one week, so there is no evidence base for months of continuous use, and no evidence that a strap weakens anything either. What we see in practice is simpler: a strap that lives on the knee all day stops being information. You no longer know what your knee can do, because you have not asked it, and the program stops being guided by anything.

A reasonable habit is to wear it for the sessions and situations that need it, go without for ordinary days, and check every few weeks whether the sessions still need it. A strap you have stopped noticing is usually one you have stopped needing.

When to see a physio about it

See a physio (physical therapist) if the pain is not improving within a few weeks, if it is stopping you training, or if you are not sure the pain is coming from the tendon at all. The NHS advises seeing a GP if knee pain does not improve within a few weeks, and in some places you can reach physiotherapy without a referral.

Bring the strap to the appointment. Where it sits, whether it helps and what you are using it to get through are all useful information, and a few minutes on placement is worth more than another forum thread. A physio can also tell you whether the tendon is the problem, which matters because the strap is useless for the things that get mistaken for it.

If you are still growing, or you are reading this for a child who is, get the knee assessed before buying or wearing anything. For any of the warning signs listed below, get help within the time given there. None of this is a diagnosis or personal advice for your knee. It is what the strap evidence supports, and where it stops.

Related exercise programs

Warning signs

Get emergency help now

Emergency: you felt a sudden pop or tearing feeling just above or below your kneecap, you can see or feel a dip there, the kneecap seems to have moved up toward the thigh or to sag lower than usual, or you suddenly cannot straighten your knee or lift your leg out straight. Stop exercising and go to an emergency department straight away, even if you can still walk, as this can be a torn tendon at the front of the knee, either below the kneecap (patellar tendon) or above it (quadriceps tendon). Do not drive yourself. A repair usually does better if it is done soon after the injury.
Emergency: the knee has moved out of place, looks misshapen or is pointing at an odd angle, or you have tingling or no feeling in the knee, leg or toes, or your foot turns cold, pale or blue. Go to an emergency department straight away. Do not drive yourself: ask someone to drive you or call an ambulance.
Emergency: the knee became very swollen very quickly, within a few hours of a twist, fall or blow, or you felt a pop or snap. Go to an emergency department straight away. Do not drive yourself: ask someone to drive you or call an ambulance.
Emergency: the kneecap has slipped out of place, even if it went back by itself. If it is still out of place, go to an emergency department straight away, and do not drive yourself. If it went back by itself, get medical advice the same day.
Emergency: you are still growing and have pain that wakes you at night, pain at rest that keeps getting worse, or a lump or swelling around the knee or thigh that keeps growing. If you also have a rash that does not fade when you press it, call emergency services or go to an emergency department.
Emergency: since your operation on this knee, you felt a pop, a snap or a tearing feeling at the front of the knee, the knee gave way under you, you can no longer straighten it or lift your leg out straight, or your kneecap looks or feels as though it has moved up toward the thigh. Go to an emergency department straight away, say which operation you have had, and do not drive yourself. A repaired patellar tendon can tear again or pull away from the kneecap, and the same signs after a knee replacement mean the tendons that straighten the knee need checking urgently. A repair usually does better if it is done soon.

Get help now, day or night

In a knee immobilizer, brace or cast, the pain gets worse, your foot or toes feel numb, tingle or burn or look more swollen, or the device feels too tight. Stop, lie down and rest the leg with the foot at about hip level and no higher, keep moving your toes and contact your surgical team or fracture clinic or get medical advice straight away. If you wear a brace with straps, loosen the straps but keep it on. Do not prop the leg higher than that and do not put ice on it, because if pressure is building up inside the leg both of those cut down the blood reaching your foot. If you cannot move your toes, the pain is severe even after painkillers, or the numbness, tingling, burning or swelling has not settled within 30 minutes, go to your fracture clinic or an emergency department straight away, and do not drive yourself.
Your tendon pain or swelling started while you were taking a fluoroquinolone antibiotic, such as ciprofloxacin or levofloxacin, or in the months after a course. Contact your doctor straight away. The UK medicines regulator (MHRA) advises stopping the antibiotic at the first sign of tendon pain or swelling and talking to your doctor. Hold off the knee exercises until you have been checked.

Get help today

Same day: the pain started with a fall, a twist or a blow to the knee, or you cannot put weight on the leg. Get medical advice the same day.
Same day: the knee is locked, which means it is stuck bent and you cannot fully straighten it, even after gently trying to move it, or you cannot bend or straighten the leg at all. Get assessed the same day by a doctor, at urgent care or at an emergency department. A torn piece of meniscus can get caught in the joint and block it, and when a tear like this can be repaired, it should be done as early as possible. A knee that catches for a moment and then frees itself can happen with a meniscus tear. That is not the same as a locked knee, but tell your physio or doctor about it.
Same day: the knee keeps giving way under you, or it gave way after a recent injury, or it gives way and is also very painful or swollen. Get medical advice the same day. If it only happens now and then, with no recent injury and no swelling, it is not an emergency, but book an assessment with a physio or doctor in the next few days.
Same day: the knee swells up with no clear reason, especially if you take medicine to thin your blood. Get medical advice the same day.
Same day: a leg or foot that is getting weaker, for example your foot drags, catches on the ground or slaps down when you walk (foot drop). Get medical advice the same day. If the weakness is getting worse by the hour, go to an emergency department.
Same day: the knee is hot, red and swollen, or you have knee pain with a high temperature or feel hot, cold or shivery. Get medical advice the same day, and go to an emergency department if you feel very unwell. This can be a sign of infection in the joint, which needs treatment quickly.
Same day: after a repair of a tendon at the front of the knee, your knee is gradually getting further from straight, or you can no longer hold your leg out straight when you could a week or two ago, and there was no pop and no single moment you can point to. Contact your surgical team the same day rather than waiting for your next appointment. A repair can stretch out gradually instead of giving way all at once, and this is what that looks like. Keep to what your surgical team has already allowed you to do, and do not move on to a new exercise or a new stage until you have been seen.
Same day: since your operation, your wound is oozing, leaking or has pus coming out of it, or its edges start to come apart, or your knee is tender, swollen, painful or red and it is not getting better or is getting worse, or you have a high temperature or feel hot and cold or shivery. Redness can be harder to see on brown or black skin. Contact your surgical team the same day, or get urgent medical advice if you cannot reach them. These can be signs of an infection in the wound or the knee joint. If you feel very unwell, go to an emergency department. If you have a very high or very low temperature, shivering you cannot control, you are breathing very fast or finding it hard to breathe, you are confused or your speech is slurred, your skin, lips or tongue look blue, gray, pale or blotchy (on brown or black skin this can be easier to see on the palms of the hands or soles of the feet), or you have a rash that does not fade when you press it, call emergency services, as this can be sepsis.
Same day: a new mark, blister or sore on your skin where the cast, splint or brace sits, skin around it that turns red or raw, a brace that rubs or slips, or a cast that cracks, goes soft or gets wet. Get it looked at by the team that fitted it the same day, and do not pad it, line it or trim it yourself.
Same day: a calf or thigh that is newly swollen or getting more swollen, warm, tender, red or darker than usual, has swollen veins that are sore to touch, or has a throbbing or cramping pain that does not fit your injury or condition, or that feels different from normal muscle soreness after exercise. This can be a sign of a blood clot (deep vein thrombosis), especially after surgery, an injury, time in a cast or boot, a long trip or a spell of being much less mobile than usual. Get medical advice the same day. If you are also short of breath or have chest pain, call emergency services.
Same day: you are a teenager who is still growing and you have a limp, or pain in the hip, groin or thigh as well as the knee. Get an urgent appointment with a doctor the same day, and stay off sport and these exercises until you have been checked. If you cannot put weight on the leg, have a high temperature or feel very unwell, go to an emergency department. Some hip problems in growing teenagers, such as a slipped growth plate at the top of the thigh bone (slipped capital femoral epiphysis), are felt in the knee and need checking quickly.
Same day: pain at night or at rest that keeps getting worse. If you are being treated for cancer now, contact your cancer team the same day.

Book an appointment

Within a day or two: you are still growing and have pain that wakes you at night, pain at rest that keeps getting worse, or a lump or swelling around the knee or thigh that keeps growing. See a doctor within a day or two. Ask for an urgent appointment rather than the next routine one, and say what the pain does at night and whether a lump is getting bigger. Do the same if the pain comes with looking pale, unusual tiredness, fevers with no clear cause, bruising or bleeding easily, or weight loss. Bone pain that is worse at night, or a new lump, needs checking to rule out rarer causes such as a bone tumor or a blood cancer (leukemia).
Within a day or two: pain at night or at rest that keeps getting worse. If you have had cancer, now or in the past, see your doctor sooner, within a day or two, and mention it, even if the pain is not getting worse. Do the same if you have knee pain and are losing weight without trying, even if it does not hurt at night.
Within a few days: pain at night or at rest that keeps getting worse. See your doctor within a few days.

Common questions

Do patellar tendon straps work?

They work on the pain, in the short term, and nobody has shown they work on the tendon. The de Vries trial (2016) tested 97 athletes with patellar tendinopathy under four conditions, a strap, sports tape, placebo tape and no support, and both the strap and sports tape reduced pain on a single leg decline squat compared with no support, by about 14 mm and 13 mm on a visual scale. Neither was better than placebo tape. During sport itself, the significant reductions were in the sports tape and the placebo tape groups. Two hours after sport, all three supports reduced pain. The authors concluded that wearing an orthosis during sport, placebo tape included, can reduce pain in the short term, which is a narrower claim than the one most people have in mind when they buy one.

Where should a patellar tendon strap sit?

Over the middle of the tendon, in the gap between the bottom of the kneecap and the bony bump on the shin. The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons puts it at the top of the leg, across the middle of the patellar tendon, in the gap that runs between the lower tip of the kneecap and the tibial tubercle. Two placements are wrong and both are common: on the kneecap itself, which does nothing to the tendon, and directly on the bony bump, which on a growing knee is the sore spot you are trying not to press. Snug is enough. If it leaves a deep mark, makes the lower leg tingle or has to be pulled tight to stay put, it is too tight or the wrong size. Take it off at that point rather than letting it out a notch and carrying on, and check the fit again once you have stood up and bent the knee, because a band that feels right on a still leg is the one that bites when the knee starts working.

Is a knee sleeve as good as a patellar tendon strap?

They are built for different complaints, so neither is better in general. A sleeve gives warmth and even compression over the whole knee and suits a joint that aches but feels solid. A strap is a narrow band aimed at one tendon. The trial that compared supports in patellar tendinopathy used a strap and sports tape rather than a sleeve, so there is no head to head answer here (de Vries and colleagues, 2016). Our pages on knee braces for arthritis and knee braces for a meniscus tear go through the other types, and the short version is that a hinged or unloader brace is designed for an unstable or worn joint rather than for a sore tendon.

Can a child wear a patellar tendon strap?

Often yes, as an extra rather than as the treatment. The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons lists a patellar tendon strap among the additional things a doctor may recommend for Osgood-Schlatter disease, and there is very little research on it in this age group. What the evidence does point to is less glamorous: a review of treatments in children and adolescents with patellar tendon related pain found no evidence supporting specific types of exercise, and advised clinicians to include load modification and to guide the return to sport by symptoms. So the strap is worth a try alongside a sensible change in training load, and it is not a reason to carry on with a knee that is getting worse. Have the knee looked at first, because pain below the kneecap in a growing child is usually coming from a growth center rather than from the tendon itself.

References

de Vries A, Zwerver J, Diercks R, Tak I, van Berkel S, van Cingel R, van der Worp H, van den Akker-Scheek I. Effect of patellar strap and sports tape on pain in patellar tendinopathy: A randomized controlled trial. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports. 2016;26(10):1217-1224. https://doi.org/10.1111/sms.12556
Lavagnino M, Arnoczky SP, Dodds J, Elvin N. Infrapatellar Straps Decrease Patellar Tendon Strain at the Site of the Jumper's Knee Lesion: A Computational Analysis Based on Radiographic Measurements. Sports Health. 2011;3(3):296-302. https://doi.org/10.1177/1941738111403108
Malliaras P, Cook J, Purdam C, Rio E. Patellar Tendinopathy: Clinical Diagnosis, Load Management, and Advice for Challenging Case Presentations. Journal of Orthopaedic and Sports Physical Therapy. 2015;45(11):887-898. https://doi.org/10.2519/jospt.2015.5987
American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. Osgood-Schlatter Disease (Knee Pain). OrthoInfo. https://www.orthoinfo.org/en/diseases--conditions/osgood-schlatter-disease-knee-pain/
American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. Patellar Tendon Tear. OrthoInfo. https://www.orthoinfo.org/en/diseases--conditions/patellar-tendon-tear/
American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. Care of Casts and Splints. OrthoInfo. https://orthoinfo.aaos.org/en/recovery/care-of-casts-and-splints/
Cairns G, Owen T, Kluzek S, Thurley N, Holden S, Rathleff MS, Dean BJF. Therapeutic interventions in children and adolescents with patellar tendon related pain: a systematic review. BMJ Open Sport and Exercise Medicine. 2018;4(1):e000383. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjsem-2018-000383
NHS. Knee pain. Page last reviewed 21 December 2023. https://www.nhs.uk/symptoms/knee-pain/

Written and checked by the PocketPhysio editorial team. Last updated 2026-10-21.

This page is general education, not a diagnosis or a personal treatment plan. See a physiotherapist or doctor for advice about your own situation.