This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.

Lace-up ankle braces may reduce acute ankle injuries regardless of previous history

Add topic to email alerts

Receive an email when new articles are posted on

Please provide your email address to receive an email when new articles are posted on .

Subscribe

Added to email alerts

You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.

Click Here to Manage Email Alerts

You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.

Click Here to Manage Email Alerts

Back to Healio

We were unable to process your request. Please try again later. If you continue to have this issue please contact customerservice@slackinc.com.

Back to Healio

SAN DIEGO — Lace-up braces can reduce the occurrence of acute ankle injuries in high school basketball players regardless of their previous history of an ankle injury, according to a presentation at the 2011 Annual Meeting of the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine, here.

In the prospective, randomized controlled study, Timothy A. McGuine, PhD, ATC, and his team studied 1,460 male and female basketball players ages 13 years to 18 years from 46 U.S. high schools for the 2009-2010 season. Teams were allocated to the intervention and control group using stratified cluster randomization. Athletes in the intervention group wore a lace-up ankle brace (McDavid; Woodridge, Ill.) for each practice and game throughout the season. Athletic trainers at each school recorded ankle brace use as well as all basketball exposures and injuries. Injury rates were estimated per 1,000 exposures and compared between the intervention and control group using a log-rank test. The team examined the relationship between injury rate and ankle bracing while controlling for covariates such as previous injury history, gender, body mass index (BMI), age and level of competition.

A total of 78 acute ankle injuries, 13 knee injuries and 14 other lower extremity injuries were sustained in the control group compared to 26 acute ankle injuries, 20 knee injuries and 30 other lower extremity injuries in the braced group. The incidence of acute ankle injuries was significantly lower in the braced group compared with the control group and was not affected by gender, BMI, age and level of competition.

“Basketball has one of the higher rates for ankle injuries, and this study illustrates how a simple brace can help keep an athlete on the court,” McGuine said.

Reference:

• McGuine TA, Brooks A, Hetzel S. The effect of lace-up ankle braces on lower extremity injury rates in high school basketball players. Paper #25. Presented at the 2011 Annual Meeting of the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine. July 7-10. San Diego.

Follow OrthoSuperSite.com on Twitter