A 24-year-old male basketball player presents with anterior knee pain that worsens during jumping and improves with rest. Examination reveals point tenderness at the inferior pole of the patella, reproduced by resisted knee extension in full extension. Radiographs are normal. What is the most likely diagnosis?

• A Prepatellar bursitis
• B Osgood-Schlatter disease
• C Chondromalacia patellae
• D Patellar tendinopathy (jumper's knee) ✓

Explanation

Jumper's knee is a tendinopathy of the patellar tendon, and the lesion is characteristically located at the proximal attachment, the deep fibres at the inferior pole of the patella. Pain is activity related, worse with jumping, with focal tenderness reproduced on resisted extension. Osgood-Schlatter is an adolescent traction apophysitis at the tibial tubercle, not the inferior pole, which excludes option B. Chondromalacia causes diffuse retropatellar pain aggravated by stairs and squatting without focal tendon tenderness.

Reference: Bailey and Love's Short Practice of Surgery, 27th ed.

High-yield for: NEET PGINI-CETNExTFMGEUSMLEPLABMRCP

Written and medically reviewed by the StethoPrep medical team.