Balance Training With Stroboscopic Glasses and Neuromechanics in Patients With Chronic Ankle Instability During a Single-Legged Drop Landing.

Context: Therapeutic interventions for individuals with chronic ankle instability (CAI) are recommended to improve muscle strength, postural control, and range of motion. However, their effects on neuromechanics during a drop landing remain unclear. In addition, even though therapeutic interventions with stroboscopic glasses appear to effectively improve postural control, how they affect landing neuromechanics remains unclear.

Objective: To identify the effect of balance training with stroboscopic glasses on neuromechanics during a single-legged drop landing in patients with CAI.

Design: Randomized controlled clinical trial.

Setting: Laboratory.

Patients or other participants: A total of 50 participants with CAI were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 groups: strobe (n = 25; age = 22 ± 3 years, height = 174.7 ± 8.2 cm, mass = 71.8 ± 12.2 kg) or control (n = 25; age = 21 ± 2 years, height = 173.1 ± 8.3 cm, mass = 71.1 ± 13.5 kg).

Intervention(s): The 4-week rehabilitation (3 sessions per week) included hop-based tasks and single-legged stance. The strobe group wore stroboscopic glasses during the training, whereas the control group did not.

Main outcome measure(s): Ankle-, knee-, and hip-joint kinematics and 4 lower extremity muscle activations 150 milliseconds before and after initial contact during a single-legged drop landing in the 2 groups.

Results: The strobe group showed greater eversion (from 150 milliseconds before to 30 milliseconds after initial contact) and dorsiflexion (from 30 to 96 milliseconds after initial contact) angles and peroneal longus (from 35 milliseconds before to 5 milliseconds after initial contact) and tibialis anterior (from 0 to 120 milliseconds after initial contact) activation in the posttest than the pretest.

Conclusions: Patients with CAI who underwent a 4-week rehabilitation with stroboscopic glasses demonstrated changes in neuromechanics, including increased ankle-dorsiflexion and -eversion angles and tibialis anterior and peroneus longus activation, during a single-legged drop landing. This finding suggests that use of stroboscopic glasses during rehabilitation could help patients with CAI develop safe landing mechanics.