TY - JOUR T1 - SportsMedUpdate JF - British Journal of Sports Medicine JO - Br J Sports Med SP - 927 LP - 928 VL - 41 IS - 12 AU - Martin P Schwellnus Y1 - 2007/12/01 UR - http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/41/12/927.abstract N2 - Hoksrud A, Ohberg L, Alfredson H, et al. Am J Sports Med 2006;34:1738–46Neovascularisation is frequently observed in chronic painful Achilles and patellar tendinopathy, and sclerosing the area of vascular ingrowth using polidocanol has been shown to reduce pain.Does sclerosing treatment using polidocanol reduce pain and improve function in elite athletes suffering from patellar tendinopathy?Subjects:33 patients (42 tendons) with documented patellar tendinopathy.Experimental procedure:Subjects were randomly assigned to either a sclerosing group (SCL = 17 patients (23 knees) receiving polidocanol injections in the area of neovascularisation) or a control (CON = 16 patients (20 knees) receiving similar injections with lidocaine/epinephrine)—the control group was crossed over to active treatment after 4 months. Subjects were assessed at 0, 4, 8 and 12 months after the first injection. Training volumes were recorded in the two groups over the time period and were similar.Measures of outcome:Pain and function (Victorian Institute of Sport Assessment (VISA) score). After 8 months, when the CON group also had active treatment there was a greater improvement in the VISA score (58–79) than in the SCL group (54–70; group by time interaction, p = 0.022; time effect, p<0.0001).In patients with patellar tendinopathy, sclerosing injections with polidocanol resulted in significant improvement in … ER -