NCT02115217

Effect of Kinesiotaping on Ankle Stability

Effect of Kinesiotaping on Ankle Stability in a Population of Elite Basketball Players

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 20 (actual)
• Sponsor: Clinique Romande de Readaptation · Network
• Sex: All
• Age: 15 Years – 35 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

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.

Detailed 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.

Conditions

• Sprain and Strain of Ankle

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DEVICE	Leukotape K	All interventions will be performed by a qualified physiotherapist in a standardized manner. Tape will be extended to the recommended length (120%) and applied along the outer side of the leg, along the path of the peroneal muscle. Starting in the middle of the foot arch, the tape ends 1 cm below tibial head.
DEVICE	Sham kinesiotape	KT put with no effects

Timeline

• Start date: 2014-02-01
• Primary completion: 2014-11-01
• Completion: 2015-06-01
• First posted: 2014-04-15
• Last updated: 2019-01-31

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Switzerland