Effectiveness of Neuroprolotherapy With Home Physical Therapy Against Isolated Physical Therapy for the Treatment of Patellar Chondromalacia

Patellar chondromalacia is the degeneration of articular cartilage located on the posterior face of the patella and may suggest the onset of an osteoarthrosis. It predominates in sedentary people who overload the joint, as well as people with insufficiency in the extensor muscles of the knee. It is often seen between 30 and 40 years. Conservative management is the main treatment option and surgical intervention is considered as a last option in a small number of patients. A new treatment option is neuroprolotherapy where the approach is directed at the subcutaneous nerves as the source of pathology, which can lead to neurogenic inflammation and pain.

To evaluate the efficacy of neuroprolotherapy combined with a home physical therapy program in patients with a diagnosis of patellar chondromalacia against a control group receiving only physical therapy at home.

Methodology: Randomized clinical trial. We studied patients from the Rehabilitation Service with clinical and radiographic diagnosis of patellar chondromalacia. Two groups were studied: the first group received treatment with neuroprolotherapy combined with home physical therapy and the second group was managed with physical therapy alone, measuring the results by the WOMAC test at baseline and at 6 weeks thereafter.

Statistic analysis: The statistical analysis will be carried out in two stages, descriptive and analytical. In the first, the variables are presented as raw numbers, proportions and means of central tendency and dispersion. The analytical stage between the groups will be done by means of the Chi square test, or Fisher's exact test if any of the values of the tetra-table is equal or less than 5, for qualitative variables. For the quantitative variables an analysis of equality of variance of Levene will be made, and if the results have a normal behavior, the Student's T test will be performed, otherwise it will be analyzed with the Man Withney U test. For the intra-group analysis, the response variables before and after the treatment assigned by randomization will be included, and for the analysis of the quantitative variables, the Student's T test for related samples and the Chi-square test or Fisher's Exact test will be used for the qualitative. Any P value less than 0.05 will be considered statistically significant. The results will be captured in a database in Excel for Windows. For the statistical analysis, the SPSS program for Windows version 23 will be used.