Razi Journal of Medical Sciences

    Background & Aim: Knee injury is one of the major problems in sports medicine, and the use of prophylactic knee braces is an attempt to reduce the occurrence or severity of injuries to the knee joint. In addition to providing protection, a prophylactic knee brace should not inhibit normal joint function. The objectives of the present study were to examine the effect of three prophylactic knee braces upon athletes' performance.

Patients and Method: This study was a randomized clinical trial in which 31 healthy male collegiate athletes volunteered as subjects to examine the effect of these braces on their knee function through isokinetic and functional tests in four sets: 1-without brace (control) 2- wearing knee sleeve without stays 3- wearing knee sleeve with four bilateral stays 4-with prefabricated brace. The order of sets was randomized and the domain limb was evaluated. The test protocol consisted of cross-over hop and vertical jump tests, in which the best jump distance of three trials was recorded. Then the subjects were administered an isokinetic knee flexion and extension test at 60deg/sec, 180 deg/sec and 300deg/sec, and the following isokinetic variables were recorded: peak torque to body weight ratio and average power. Repeated measures analysis of variance was used to evaluate the differences between 4 conditions.

Results: Repeated measures analysis of variance revealed no significant difference between three trials in terms of peak torque to body weight ratio, average power, vertical jump and hop measurements,as they were tested within the three experimental conditions and one control condition (p>0. 05).

Conclusion: These findings suggest that the selected brace/sleeves did not significantly inhibit athletic performance. Inasmuch as the function of knee joint was not impaired while wearing the neoprene sleeve without stays and knee sleeves are supposed to ameliorate knee joint position sense. it seems beneficial to use neoprene sleeves as the main structure of prophylactic knee braces.