They are premium sports wraps, some made with lycra. Each of these is impregnated with a unique blend of natural rare earth semiconductors that relax muscles, reduces pain or prevents swelling. The newest products are men and women compression shorts.

Selected full citations from 565 MEDLINE records

Jumper's knee is an overuse disease. The initial subjective complaints are well-localized pain, usually occurring after physical activities and often at the lower pole of the patella. The diagnosis of jumper's knee is usually easily established after acquiring a detailed history and a carefully performed physical examination, but the lesion can be mistaken for other disorders or injuries, such as bursitis, meniscal injuries or chondromalacia (1) or other causes of the patellofemoral pain syndrome. Today ultrasonography is the method of choice for the evaluation of jumper's knee as it is both time and cost saving, non- invasive, repeatable, accurate and allows a dynamic image of the tendon, guided injections and control of treatment. Conservative therapy is the treatment of choice in the early stages and includes adequate warm-up, stretching of the quadriceps muscle and physical activity with respect to the pain, and ice pack application after activity. When the pain disappears, the training intensity can be increased.

NSAID (Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs) and local peritendinous injections with long-acting steroids can be a helpful and safe adjuvant to the conservative treatment and should be tried before surgery. Surgical treatment is indicated only if a prolonged and well- supervised conservative treatment program fails in chronic jumper's knee (including local injection with steroid) or in acute total rupture.

Review papers concerning jumper's knee are already published (2-5), but in this review the importance of ultrasonography to make the diagnosis, to plan therapy and control the treatment and the safety of peritendinous injection with steroid is pointed out. The scientific documentation for the recommanded treatment (conservative, steroid injection and operation) is, however, insufficient.

Many more controlled studies are needed. Ultrasonography and placebo-controlled, double-blinded, cross-over studies for treatment with local injection of steroid are ongoing (6, 7).
Tendinitis, Paratendinitis and Tendinosis

________________________________

Of all the overuse problems associated with physical activity, tendinitis is among the most common. In the past, all conditions have been termed tendinitis and treated accordingly. There now are several different pathological entities. These are: tendinitis, paratendinitis, tendinosis, partial and complete rupture.

Tendinitis is a catch term for inflammation of the tendon itself, and can often co-exist with paratendinitis.

The cause of tendinitis usually results from microscopic tears within the tendon and triggering an inflammatory response within the tendon. Common areas susceptible to tendinitis are; achilles, patella, adductor longus, supraspinatus, biceps, tibialis posterior and flexor hallucis longus tendons.

The first signs of tendinitis are usually noticed following exercise and especially first thing in the morning. During the warm-up phase of exercise the pain frequently disappears and only returns after the cool down period. Consequently, the sportsperson can train through the pain in the early stages and therefore interfering with the healing process.

The main characteristics of tendinitis are tenderness, crepitus and local swelling.

Tendinitis responds well to a combination of; ice, rest, frictions, massage and strengthening once the tendon becomes less painful. When strengthening, eccentric exercises have been very successful in helping preventing recurrence.

Basketball, volleyball, running - all of these activities involve repetitive running and/or jumping and could cause a very painful knee condition called patellar tendinitis or "jumper’s knee".

The act of jumping, especially, puts a great deal of stress on the patellar tendon, which attaches to the bottom of your kneecap. The force of hitting the ground repeatedly could cause the tendon to become inflamed and even begin to tear. Pain is usually felt in the front of the knee just below the kneecap and may be felt during or after vigorous running or jumping. You may also experience discomfort when you sit down and extend your leg straight out.