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Background: The long-term recovery (in years) of patellar tendinopathy treated with loading-based rehabilitation remains largely unknown. Purpose: To examine the clinical outcome and tendon structure years after exercise-based treatment of chronic patellar tendinopathy. Study Design: Case series; Level of evidence, 4. Methods: This was a 3- to 4-year follow-up evaluation of participants (N = 28) from a previous randomized clinical trial by the author group. All participants received loading-based rehabilitation for 12 weeks with either moderate-slow resistance (55% of 1 repetition maximum) or heavy-slow resistance (up to 90% of 1 repetition maximum). Both groups showed similar improvements after 3 and 12 months and were therefore collapsed in the present analysis. Function and symptoms (the Victorian Institute of Sport Assessment-Patella VISA-P questionnaire), tendon pain (numeric rating scale NRS during activity and during a single-leg decline squat test), and tendon structure (tendon vascularization and thickness on ultrasound) were assessed. Results: < .0001). Conclusion: Clinical symptoms remained even years after loading-based treatment for patellar tendinopathy, whereas some but not all tendon structures normalized in this longer term follow-up.
Agergaard et al. (Tue,) studied this question.