Ankle sprains are among the most common injuries in sports. The majority involve the lateral ligaments of the ankle following a rapid inversion of the weight bearing joint. The ability of prophylactic stabilization to minimize the impact of these forces has been studied extensively. An innovative device designed to evoke a 20ยบ inversion perturbation was used to demonstrate that application of ankle prophylaxis is effective in improving muscular response in healthy individuals. Forty one volunteers (21 males, 20 females) underwent EMG analysis of the peroneus longus (PL) and tibialis anterior (TA), measuring reflex latency (RL) and time to peak amplitude (TPA) while performing a dynamic task. Data were collected while subjects were fitted with two types of ankle braces (lace-up and semi-rigid) and standard closed basketweave ankle taping, each compared with a no support control. In addition, a comparison of PL and TA was conducted to determine muscle differences on measures of RL and TPA. Significantly shorter RL in the PL were observed in the lace-up and semi rigid brace conditions compared to the no brace (p=0.004, p less than 0.001) control. Similarly, the semi-rigid brace was significantly shorter than the tape (p less than 0.001) condition. In the TA, RL were significantly shorter for the lace-up than the no brace (p less than 0.008) control. TPA values were significantly shorter for the lace-up and semi rigid brace conditions in the TA compared to the no brace (p=0.007, p=0.001) control; and the semi-rigid brace TPA was significantly shorter than tape (p less than 0.001). No significant differences were observed in either RL or TPA measurements (p greater than 0.05) between the PL and TA. The dynamic task in this study better replicates the conditions which often precipitate ankle injury. Results indicate the application of ankle support may be beneficial in heightening the sensitivity of dynamic restraints, thus minimizing the effects of a rapid inversion mechanism. In particular, the lace-up and semi-rigid braces appeared to be the most effective in hastening muscular responses observed during a dynamic task. The implications for these findings would be of particular interest to the clinician when recommending the type of prophylactic support to be employed during sport activity.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-03302005-153524 |
| Date | 31 March 2005 |
| Creators | Conley, Kevin Michael |
| Contributors | Scott M. Lephart, Elaine N. Rubinstein, David A Stone, Freddie H. Fu, G. Kelley Fitzgerald |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-03302005-153524/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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