The effect of knee braces on tibial rotation in anterior cruciate ligament-deficient knees during high-demand athletic activities.
OBJECTIVE
To examine if bracing can restrict tibial rotation in anterior cruciate ligament (ACL)-deficient patients during high loading activities.


METHODS
Repeated measures. Kinematic data were collected with an 8-camera Vicon system while each patient performed 2 tasks that are known to cause increased rotational and translational loads on the knee: (1) descending from a stair and subsequent pivoting, and (2) landing from a platform and subsequent pivoting. The tasks were repeated under 3 brace conditions for the ACL-deficient knee: (1) wearing a prophylactic brace (braced condition), (2) wearing a patellofemoral brace (sleeved condition), and (3) without brace (unbraced condition).


METHODS
Biomechanical laboratory study.


METHODS
Twenty-one male subjects with a confirmed unilateral ACL rupture were assessed in vivo.


METHODS
Tibial internal rotation. Two repeated measures ANOVAs tested for differences in tibial internal rotation among the 3 conditions of the ACL-deficient knee and the unbraced condition of the intact knee.


RESULTS
In both tasks, tibial rotation was significantly lower in the intact knee compared with all 3 conditions of the ACL-deficient knee (P ≤ 0.031). Bracing the ACL-deficient knee resulted in lower rotation than the unbraced (P ≤ 0.001) and sleeved (P ≤ 0.033) conditions. The sleeved condition resulted in lower tibial rotation in the drop landing and pivoting task compared with the unbraced condition (P = 0.019) but not in the stair descending and pivoting task (P = 0.256).


CONCLUSIONS
Bracing decreased the excessive tibial rotation in ACL-deficient patients during high-demand activities but failed to fully restore normative values. If knee braces can enhance rotational knee stability in ACL-deficient patients, then they could possibly play an important role in preventing further knee pathology in such patients.
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Orthopaedic Sports Medicine Center, University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece. dimitris.p.giotis@gmail.com
Dimitrios
D
Giotis
Franceska
F
Zampeli
Evangelos
E
Pappas
Grigoris
G
Mitsionis
Pericles
P
Papadopoulos
Anastasios D
AD
Georgoulis
D000328:Adult; D000070598:Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injuries; D053587:Arthrometry, Articular; D001915:Braces; D006801:Humans; D007719:Knee Joint / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D012399:Rotation; D013177:Sports / Q000502:physiology*; D013977:Tibia / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult