Disclosures: Kayle Noble-Taylor, DO: No financial relationships or conflicts of interest

Objective: To describe the outcomes of ultrasound-guided (USG) tendon scraping (TS) for patellar tendinopathy.

Design: Retrospective case series.Setting : Outpatient sports medicine clinic at an academic institution.Participants : Patients who underwent USG TS for patellar tendinopathy.

Interventions: TS is a procedure performed under USG using a meniscotome and/or needle with injection of normal saline to separate the deep surface of the patellar tendon from Hoffa’s fat pad, and thereby, mechanically ablate neovessels (and accompanying neonerves) that are purported to cause pain in patellar tendinopathy. Two reviewers independently performed a retrospective chart review of all patients that underwent USG TS for patellar tendinopathy between April 2014 and June 2020. Procedural follow-up documentation was examined for outcome measures. If there was no documented follow up, patients were contacted via telephone.

Main Outcome Measures: Complications, peak self-reported pain relief, return to goal activity, progression to secondary interventions, time to secondary intervention, and improvement with secondary intervention were recorded.

Results: USG TS was performed on 21 patients (19 male and 2 female) aged 15-54 years (mean 27.3) diagnosed with patellar tendinopathy (25 tendons) by the senior author (JS). 56% of patients reported “excellent” pain relief. Although 60% of patients went on to have a secondary intervention (medications, physical therapy, or procedures), 96% of patients returned to their goal activity initially after the procedure. The mean time to secondary intervention was 24 weeks (range 3 to 95 weeks). No complications were observed.Conclusions: These findings suggest USG TS is a safe procedure and may be a reasonable treatment option to consider for patellar tendinopathy, especially for in-season athletes given the limited recovery time required and potential for rapid return to sport/activity.

Level of Evidence: Level IV

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PM&R Meeting Abstracts - https://pmrjabstracts.org/abstract/ultrasound-guided-tendon-scraping-outcomes-for-patellar-tendinopathy-a-retrospective-case-series/