Early anterior knee pain in male adolescent basketball players is related to body height and abnormal knee morphology.

OBJECTIVES: To compare knee torque, range of motion, quality of movement, and morphology in dominant and nondominant legs of male adolescent basketball players with and without anterior knee pain and untrained peers.

DESIGN: Cross-sectional.

SETTING: Sports performance laboratory.

PARTICIPANTS: Male basketball players aged 14-15 years with and without anterior knee pain and healthy untrained subjects (n = 88).

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Basketball players were allocated to a symptomatic or asymptomatic group based on self-reported anterior knee pain. Associations between pain and body mass, height, passive range of motion, muscle peak torque, coactivation, neuromuscular control, proprioception, and ultrasound observations were investigated.

RESULTS: The prevalence of pain did not differ significantly between sides. Of 176 knees inspected, 44 were painful, and 26 of these exhibited abnormalities in ultrasonography. Symptomatic players were 5.0 and 6.9 cm taller than asymptomatic players and controls, respectively (P < 0.05). In athletes with knee pain, the odds ratios of morphological abnormalities and greater height were increased by 8.6 and 5.0 times (P < 0.001).

CONCLUSION: Knee pain prevalence in adolescent basketball players was not related to differences between sides but was higher in tall players. Knee pain was accompanied by morphological abnormalities detected with ultrasound.