Effects of external ankle braces on kinematics and kinetics of the lower limb during the cutting maneuver in healthy females

Background

To explore if lace-up ankle brace and hinged ankle brace affect the kinematics and kinetics of the lower limbs during a cutting maneuver.

Methods

Twenty healthy females performed a 45° cutting maneuver with different ankle braces. Ground reaction force, lower-limb joint angles and moments were compared among different ankle braces.

Results

Wearing hinged ankle brace significantly increased maximal knee valgus angle than lace-up and no brace conditions (0.7° [p = 0.011] and 0.6° [p = 0.029], respectively). Wearing hinged and lace-up ankle braces significantly increased maximal knee internal rotation angle (1.58° [p ≤ 0.001] and 1.30° [p = 0.020], respectively) and decreased maximal ankle inversion angle (3.04° [p ≤ 0.001] and 1.76° [p = 0.013], respectively). A considerable difference in kinetics was observed only in the maximal ankle eversion moment, which was higher in the hinged condition than the lace-up (p = 0.010) or no brace (p = 0.023) condition.

Conclusion

Wearing an hinged or lace-up ankle brace may reduce the risk of ankle sprain in females during cutting maneuvers. Ankle brace appears to have upstream effects on the knee, which may have injury implication.