抄録
We provided physical therapy for a patient with anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury, who had difficulty descending stairs due to patellofemoral pain. This case had the following clinical findings: instability of the knee, disorder of the ankle motion axis, external rotation of the knee, and patellofemoral pain. This patient had gait ability but could not descend stairs. The problem was re-assessed using surface electromyograms. It was thought that external rotation of the knee with knee flexion when descending stairs was causing the patellofemoral pain. Physical therapy to control external rotation of the knee resulted in the pain in the patellofemoral joint being reduced. The movement of the knee improved during descending stairs as captured by digital video camera, and quadriceps muscles activity continued on the surface electromyogram, after the single physical therapy session. As a result, descending stairs became possible for this patient.
