Introduction: Patellar tendinopathy is a painful ligamentous degeneration caused by micro ligament injuries that occur during activities with a lot of eccentric muscle activity of the lower limbs, resulting in fibre degeneration and tendinopathy. There is pain around the ligaments and limited function of the lower limbs. Eccentric exercises are often used as a therapy, but their effectiveness has not been fully studied. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis was to present the effectiveness of eccentric exercises in reducing pain and improving function in patients with patellar tendinopathy by literature review. Methods: Literature published between 2000 and 2019 in the PubMed, ScienceDirect, and Cochrane Library electronic databases was reviewed using the keywords patellar tendinopathy and eccentric exercise. Results: Five studies were included in the analysis and were available in full text. The effect of eccentric training on function and pain was similar. The studies differed in in term of exercise programs, gender, age, number of subjects, volume, and frequency of training. In all studies but one, there was a reduction in pain and/or improvement in function in subjects compared with pre-treatment status. It was found out that 100 % of subject that performed eccentric exercises reported the state of pain level as better or much better. Another research reported statistically important improvement of VAS (p < 0,01) in subject that did eccentric/concentric exercise program. There was improvement in VISA-p score (42,2 points) and reduced pain levels on VAS scale (50 points at subjects who performed eccentric exercise program. With this review we also noticed statistically important difference (p < 0,01) of VAS score between first measurement and after therapy program in subjects who performed eccentric exercises (33 less pain on VAS). Eccentric exercise was more effective than comparable therapies, except for an eccentric/concentric exercise program, which had a comparable effect. Discussion and Conclusion: In the analysed studies, most authors reported the efficacy of eccentric exercises for pain reduction and functional improvement in subjects with patellar tendinopathy. Further studies with a more comparable exercise program and a larger number of subjects are needed.
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