Effect of Kinesiotaping on Ankle Stability

Clinique Romande de Readaptation

Status: Completed

Conditions: Sprain and Strain of Ankle

Treatments: Device: Leukotape K; Device: Sham kinesiotape

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NETWORK

Identifiers

NCT02115217

CliniqueRR-02

Details and patient eligibility

About

Ankles sprains are the most popular injuries in basketball players. They are traumatic injuries, which happen most of the time in specific situations, like landing on another player's foot, or during changes of direction.

Neuromuscular exercises are very important to improve ankle stability and reduce risks of sprains. However various external support such as ankles braces and rigid tape, are also used in order to prevent injury.

The kinesiotape (KT) is a new but broadly used method in the world of athletes. Created by KenzoKase, in 1980, this kind of tape has a tremendous success with athletes and is today commonly used during practices and/or competitions. The main property of this tape is its elasticity, which is supposed to improve proprioception and, thus ankle stability, but these aspects have not been investigated yet.

Full description

Aim: Compare the effects of a kinesiotape (KT) with a sham treatment (KT put with no effects) and a control condition (absence of tape) in basketball players from the Swiss national league through balance tests on an unstable surface.

Hypotheses: A KT positioned on the lateral side of the leg improves ankle stability in basketball players while balancing on an unstable surface.

Method: 30 subjects will be recruited from different basketball teams affiliated to the Swiss national league. They will have to perform some postural stability tests on both unstable ("Delos") and stable surfaces ("Single Les Stance", "Star Excursion Balance Test", "Cross Over Hop Test for Distance") under three different conditions. The three condition will be as followed : with a KT positioned on the lateral side of the leg, with a sham tape or without tape. The three sessions will be spaced in time (7 days of wash out). The order of the three interventions (KT, Sham tape, no tape) will be randomized (cross over) to avoid the bias of learning processes. Neither the subjects nor the examiner will be aware of the "tape condition" (double blind); a physiotherapist will be in charge of positioning the tape according to the tested condition.

The sequence of the tests will be the same for all subjects and breaks are scheduled to avoid the effect of the fatigue. An anamnesis of all subjects will be done in order to evaluate history of injuries. At the end of each session, a visual analogical scale will be completed by the athlete to obtain a personal feeling of stability . The subject will be also asked to determine which condition was tested.

Expected results: the application of a KT on the lateral side of the leg improves postural stability on instable surfaces in elite basketball players.

Field's importance: the application of KT may reduce the risk of ankle sprains and the recurrence of sprains in a population of athletes at risk.

Enrollment: 20 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 15 to 35 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• active elite basketball players

Exclusion criteria

• no history of ankle sprain in the last 6 weeks
• no history of any other lower limbs lesion in the last 6 weeks

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Crossover Assignment

Masking: Triple Blind

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20 participants in 2 patient groups, including a placebo group

Leukotape K, basketball training

Experimental group

Description:

Use of Leukotape K to ensure stability of the ankle in basketball players

Treatment:

Device: Leukotape K

Sham, basketball training

Placebo Comparator group

Description:

Use of sham tape

Treatment:

Device: Sham kinesiotape