Introduction

Patellofemoral pain affects physically active and sedentary individuals, accounting for 11–17% of knee pain presentations to general practice1 ,2 and 25–40% of all knee problems seen in a sports injury clinic.3 ,4 Patellofemoral pain is characterised by anterior knee pain associated with activities such as squatting, rising from sitting and stair ambulation. While traditionally viewed as self-limiting, increasing research data suggest that patellofemoral pain is often recalcitrant and can persist for many years,5–8 and may cause a decline in sports participation.8 ,9

Despite its high prevalence among active individuals9–12 and frequent presentations for treatment, there are few published guidelines to help clinicians choose the appropriate evidence-based treatment for patellofemoral pain. The most recent and relevant paper from Barton and colleagues13 combined systematic review findings with qualitative interviews from expert clinicians to provide a clinically relevant synthesis, covering the literature up to September 2013. At the International Patellofemoral Pain Research Retreat in Manchester 2015, we held a consensus meeting to update the current evidence base and produce consensus-based recommendations regarding treatment for patellofemoral pain. All retreat registrants were active researchers in patellofemoral pain and presented their research findings. Many of the world leading researchers (eg, 8 out of the top 10 researchers with the highest number of publications, when the term ‘patellofemoral pain’ was searched in Scopus, February 2016) were in attendance and contributed to the consensus meeting.

The consensus meeting during the retreat resulted in recommendations, based on evidence published between January 2010 and June 2015. These recommendations should be combined with information gathered from individual patients, regarding their preferences, experiences, presentation and values, along with the values, expertise and skills of individual practitioners to create a patient-centred treatment approach.