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Background: Patellar taping has long been reported to be effective in relieving pain in patients with patello-femoral pain syndrome (PFPS). Yet, there is lack of knowledge that supports its use in knee osteoarthritis (OA) management. Purpose: This study examined the effect of therapeutic patellar taping on concentric and eccentric quadriceps muscle peak torques, VAS pain scores, 6-minute walking distance and stair climbing time in patients with knee OA. Methods: A total of 30 female patients with symptomatic knee OA with mean age 51.8 ± 6.3 years and BMI 32.56 ± 3.26 m2/kg participated in the study. They were tested under three taping conditions that were tested randomly; therapeutic, placebo and no-tape. Results: Repeated measure MANOVA revealed that the quadriceps muscle peak torques and 6-minute walking distance increased significantly (p < 0.05) and the VAS scores and stair climbing time decreased significantly with therapeutic tape use compared with the other two tapes. Moreover, the quadriceps muscle peak torques increased significantly and the VAS scores decreased significantly with placebo tape use compared with no-tape use, with no significant difference (p > 0.05) in between for the 6-minute walking distance and stair climbing time. Conclusion: The findings indicate that therapeutic patellar taping is effective in improving quadriceps strength and functional performance and reducing pain in patients with knee OA.

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Objectives: Recently, high-intensity laser therapy has been used in the therapeutic protocols for pain management. We aimed to evaluate the clinical efficacy of high-intensity laser therapy versus other different modalities for improving lateral epicondylitis symptoms. Methodology: We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis on prospective randomized controlled trials from PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, and Science Direct until June 2021 using relevant key words. We analyzed the data using Review Manager software (RevMan 5.4). Results: Six randomized controlled trials with 344 patients were included. There is low-quality evidence that high-intensity laser therapy generates a small reduction on pain intensity compared with a control group either during activity (mean difference = −0.98, 95% confidence interval = −1.6 to −0.35, P = 0.002) or during rest (mean difference = −0.98, 95% confidence interval = −1.68 to −0.09, P = 0.03). In addition, there is low-quality evidence that high-intensity laser therapy provides small improvements in quality of life (physical component) compared with control (mean difference = 9.76, 95% confidence interval = 2.69 to 16.83, P < 0.0001). Conclusions: High-intensity laser therapy is an effective therapeutic modality to reduce pain and improve quality of life (36-item short form health survey physical component) in patients experiencing persistent symptoms of lateral epicondylitis. However, grip strength, hand function, and quality of life (36-item short form health survey) did not show significant differences between high-intensity laser therapy and other therapies.

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