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Published on: September 18, 2020
Influence of external ankle support on lower extremity joint mechanics during drop landings
Mitchell L Cordova1, Yosuke Takahashi, Gregory M Kress
1Biodynamics Research Laboratory, Department of Kinesiology, and Center for Biomedical Engineering Systems, University of North Carolina, Charlotte, NC, USA.
Objective:
To investigate the effects of external ankle support (EAS) on lower extremity joint mechanics and vertical ground-reaction forces (VGRF) during drop landings.
Design:
A 1 x 3 repeated-measures, crossover design.
Setting:
Biomechanics research laboratory.
Patients:
13 male recreationally active basketball players (age 22.3 +/- 2.2 y, height 177.5 +/- 7.5 cm, mass 72.2 +/- 11.4 kg) free from lower extremity pathology for the 12 mo before the study.
Interventions:
Subjects performed a 1-legged drop landing from a standardized height under 3 different ankle-support conditions.
Main Outcome Measures:
Hip, knee, and ankle angular displacement along with specific temporal (TGRFz1, TGRFz2; s) and spatial (GRFz1, GRFz2; body-weight units [BW]) characteristics of the VGRF vector were measured during a drop landing.
Results:
The tape condition (1.08 +/- 0.09 BW) demonstrated less GRFz1 than the control (1.28 +/- 0.16 BW) and semirigid conditions (1.28 +/- 0.21 BW; P < .0001), and GRFz2 was unaffected. For TGRFz1, no-support displayed slower time (0.017 +/- 0.004 s) than the semirigid (0.014 +/- 0.001 s) and tape conditions (0.014 +/- 0.002 s; P < .05). For TGRFz2, no-support displayed slower time (0.054 +/- 0.006 s) than the semirigid (0.050 +/- 0.006 s) and tape conditions (0.045 +/- 0.004 s; P < .05). Semirigid bracing was slower than the tape condition, as well (P < .05). Ankle-joint displacement was less in the tape (34.6 degrees +/- 7.7 degrees) and semirigid (36.8 degrees +/- 9.3 degrees) conditions than in no-support (45.7 degrees +/- 7.3 degrees; P < .05). Knee-joint displacement was larger in the no-support (45.1 degrees +/- 9.0 degrees) than in the semirigid (42.6 degrees +/- 6.8 degrees; P < .05) condition. Tape support (43.8 degrees +/- 8.7 degrees) did not differ from the semirigid condition (P > .05). Hip angular displacement was not affected by EAS (F(2,24) = 1.47, P = .25).
Conclusions:
EAS reduces ankle- and knee-joint displacement, which appear to influence the spatial and temporal characteristics of GRFz1 during drop landings.
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