Investigate the plantar pressure distribution in PFP patients: A systematic review

Changes in the plantar pressure distribution may be very effective to identifying and treatment people at risk of patellofemoral pain (PFP). Therefore, the aim of this review study was to investigate the plantar pressure distribution in PFP patients.

The search process was performed in Cochrane Library, PubMed, Springer Link, Science Direct, Scopus, web of science and Medline databases. Studies limited to the 2000 to 2020 years were extracted. Selected articles were screened in a three-step process according to inclusion and exclusion criteria. Two researchers evaluated the quality of articles with a modified questionnaire Downs and Black for prospective, case-control and cross-sectional studies and were classified into three categories: high quality, medium quality and low quality.

10 articles were selected for systematic review. 6 study was high quality and 4 study was medium quality that classified which were of high quality in total selected articles. The results of study analysis showed that PFP patients present a different pattern of plantar pressure distribution by increasing and decreasing foot pronation.

PFP patients with increased foot pronation show increase peak pressure and contact area in the medial part of the foot and second and third metatarsophalangeal; in contrast, in PFP patients with decrease foot pronation show a decrease in peak pressure and contact area in the medial part of the anterior part of the foot, and an increase in contact area and peak pressure in the lateral of the foot.