Quote Originally Posted by jwilso View Post
I recently attended a meeting with senior physios and one of them claimed that he could resolve 95-100% of anterior knee pain cases with neural tension stretches. ( ie SLR exercises ). i have personnally never looked at ANT with these patients but would be interested if anyone else has tried this approach and i would also be interested in other peoples opinion on this physios claim.
I would agree that the use of neural mobilisation is useful in the treatment of anterior knee pain when the pain is referred. I tend to make the comment that a lot of knee pain and subsequent surgery is actually referred pain. Thus the use of neural mobilisation (I would use prone knee bend with hip extension more for the femoral components and also the iliopsoas rather than SLR).

However often the use of neural mobilisation can create temporary pain relief even when the issue itself is within the knee. Keep an open mind on this. Assess the knee and if you cannot find anything to support an initial diagnosis then look further afield. As a routiene I always check hip and lumbar spine in knee pain as to overlook it will have you chasing your tail in the weeks ahead. Also the lack of hip and lumbar mobility during activity is often one of the factors that leads the knee to damage in the first place. Thus you need to assess and treat this region anyway.

I would not however make a comment that 95% of knee pain can be "cured" by SLR, although many might get a temporary reduction of symptoms using this as a treatment technique.