ARTIGO DO MÊS - (24/2009)

Este é o 1º artigo que coloco neste blog que não é de 2009, mas a sua pertinência e fundamentação continua actual e podem contextualizar bem os problemas que Rafael Nadal como outros atletas (particularmente os voleibolistas, basquetebolistas, saltadores ...) sofrem.

Patellar Tendinopathy in Athletes: Current Diagnostic and Therapeutic Recommendations
Peers KHE, Lysens RJJ

Sports Med vol. 35, 71 - 87, 2005

ABSTRACT

Introduction:
Patellar tendinopathy overuse injuries are an exasperating challenge to sport physicians. They can produce significant functional deficit and disability in recreational and professional athletes. Diagnosis and treatment options of patellar tendinopathy are discussed.

Diagnosis and Treatment:
Treatment strategies for patellar tendinopathy are often based on scientifically unsubstantiated beliefs; clinical outcomes are frequently unpredictable.

Diagnosis is typically based on clinical findings. Technological advancement of imaging techniques may offer more diagnostic options. Power Doppler ultrasonography provides an estimation of tissue vascularity independent of the angle of incident beam. It can depict proliferation of vessels in Achilles tendinopathy. When a wider anatomical view is needed, MRI may be used. Histopathologic and biochemical evidence suggests that the underlying pathology of tendinopathy is not an inflammatory tendonitis.

Rather, it is a degenerative tendinosis characterized by variable fibrosis and neovascularization, with increased celluarity due to the presence of fibroblasts. It appears that earlier reports concerning signs of inflammation may have been a misinterpretation of degenerative aspects of tendinosis. On the molecular level, clinical symptoms and nonhealing features of tendinosis are precluded by increased expression of cyclo-oxygenase-2 and transforming growth factor-β1 along with increased platelet-derived growth factor and metalloproteinase. Yet, tendons injected with a cytokine preparation demonstrate only mild, seemingly reversible tendon injury without matrix damage or evidence of collagen degradation.

Conservative management may include the following: correcting training errors to prevent injury, maintaining flexibility of the quadriceps and hamstring muscles, correcting biomechanical abnormalities, rest, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (questionable since tendinopathy is a degenerative, noninflammatory condition), corticosteroids, ice, extracorporeal shock-wave therapy, and rehabilitation.

In vivo trials of peritendinosus tissue in exercise have shown increased metabolic activity and increased formation of collagen type I in response to acute exercise, suggesting that eccentric exercise may directly counteract the failed healing response of tendinosis.

At this point, it is not possible to determine one exercise program as superior to others. Practical guidelines for an eccentric patellar tendon training program include the use of decline squats; exercise once or twice daily for a minimum of 12 weeks; pain during exercise tolerated (increased pain the next day not allowed); and increase in the number of repetitions, speed of movement, and load when pain becomes less painful.

Surgical management may be considered if patellar tendinopathy symptoms and functional impairment persist past 6 months after initiation of conservative treatment.

Conclusion:
Improved knowledge concerning the noninflammatory, degenerative pathology of chronic tendinopathy may serve to prompt clinicians to shift their therapeutic focus from anti-inflammatory approaches to a more complete rehabilitation based on eccentric exercises.