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The effect of ankle braces on the prevention of dynamic forced ankle inversion
Matthew L Ubell1, James P Boylan, James A Ashton-Miller
1Medsport, Department of Orthopedic Surgery, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.
Background:
Athletes often employ prophylactic braces to reduce the risk of ankle injuries.
Hypothesis:
Ankle braces do not significantly decrease the risk of forced inversion on a standardized one-footed jump landing.
Study Design:
Controlled laboratory study.
Methods:
Fourteen healthy men with a mean age of 25.1 years were tested. Three braces, two semirigid (Aircast and Bledsoe) and one lace-up (Swede-O), were fitted to each subject. Forced dynamic ankle inversion of 24 degrees was to be resisted as the subjects landed on one foot with a force of two body weights on a stimulus presented randomly in 5 of 15 jump trial blocks onto a hard, level force plate. Subjects first completed 1 no-brace block of 5 trials to establish baseline performance, then 3 randomly ordered 15-trial blocks testing performance with each of the braces, and then finally a no-brace 5-trial block.
Results:
The average no-brace success rate was 24%, which demonstrated the challenging nature of the task. All three braces increased the success rate (average, 44%); however, only the two semirigid braces proved to be significantly better than the unbraced state.
Conclusion:
This test holds promise for evaluating brace efficacy when landing with one foot unexpectedly on an object that acts to forcibly invert the ankle.
