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F.-Y. Syu1, T.-Y. Chen1, Y.-T. Huang1, Y.-F. Shih1, T.-J. Wang1
1National Yang-Ming University, Physical Therapy and Assistive Thechnology, Taipei, Taiwan
Background: In sports such as basketball, netball and volleyball, ankle sprains are one of the most common injuries, leading to athletes wearing prophylactic ankle braces when playing sports, even with no prior history of ankle injuries. Ankle braces are considered a highly recommended method to prevent ankle sprain by restricting the inverted movement of the ankle. Thus, prophylactically wearing ankle braces can reduce the incidence of newly onset ankle sprains. However, past studies have shown how people with a history of ankle sprains confirmed that wearing ankle braces limited the range of motion (ROM) of their ankle joints. In addition, the compensation of other lower extremity joints may increase the risk of knee injuries. Therefore, although ankle bracing may reduce the risk of ankle injury whilst playing sports, the impact of the bracing on the kinematics and kinetics of the lower extremities is unclear.
Purpose: To investigate whether wearing ankle braces will affect healthy people without ankle injury history through the comparisons of the kinematics and kinetics of the lower extremities.
Methods: We searched databases from Airiti Library, CINAHL, ClinicalKey, Cochrane, Embase, PubMed, and Medline for journal articles in English. Inclusion criteria included
1) the study was conducted on healthy people,
2) the number of the study subjects was known,
3) the study subjects performed landing or cutting activities with and without wearing ankle braces,
4) the type of ankle brace was soft brace or semi-rigid brace (lace-up or hinged brace).
The quality of eligible studies was evaluated by using the Modified Downs and Black Checklist and the new edition of Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine Levels of Evidence. The Meta-analysis portion was conducted through the Review Manager Version 5.3 software (The Cochrane Collaboration, Copenhagen, Denmark).
1) the study was conducted on healthy people,
2) the number of the study subjects was known,
3) the study subjects performed landing or cutting activities with and without wearing ankle braces,
4) the type of ankle brace was soft brace or semi-rigid brace (lace-up or hinged brace).
The quality of eligible studies was evaluated by using the Modified Downs and Black Checklist and the new edition of Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine Levels of Evidence. The Meta-analysis portion was conducted through the Review Manager Version 5.3 software (The Cochrane Collaboration, Copenhagen, Denmark).
Results: A total of 241 healthy subjects from 14 studies met the inclusion criteria and were included in this analysis. The results showed that, compared to wearing the prophylactic ankle brace, subjects without ankle braces exhibited larger total ankle ROM (p <0.05), peak ankle inversion ROM (p=0.006) and longer time to peak ground reaction force (GRF) (p=0.004). However, there was no significant difference between brace on and off in total knee ROM and peak ankle plantar flexion ROM and peak GRF.
Conclusion(s): On average, wearing prophylactic ankle braces showed potential benefits on reducing ankle dorsiflexion and inversion ROM, however, whether other kinematics or kinetics would be impacted are controversial.
Implications: Except for the ankle joint, there is no evidence indicating that wearing ankle braces will affect the kinematics or kinetics of joints of the lower extremities. Therefore, playing sports with ankle braces is acceptable for reducing ankle sprain without increasing the risk of knee injuries.
Funding, acknowledgements: none
Keywords: Prophylactic ankle brace, Kinematics, Kinetics
Topic: Sport & sports injuries
Did this work require ethics approval? No
Institution: N/A
Committee: N/A
Reason: N/A
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
