The effect of proprioceptive knee bracing on knee stability during three different sport related movement tasks in healthy subjects and the implications to the management of Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) injuries

• The pivot turn jump showed the largest knee valgus and internal rotation angle.
• No differences were seen in the sagittal plane between brace and no brace.
• Bracing showed an improvement in coronal and transverse plane knee control.
• The use of proprioceptive braces may help to decrease risk of knee injuries.

IntroductionProprioceptive knee braces have been shown to improve knee mechanics, however much of the work to date has focused on tasks such as slow step down tasks rather than more dynamic sporting tasks.ObjectiveThis study aimed to explore if such improvements in stability may be seen during faster sports specific tasks as well as slower tasks.MethodTwelve subjects performed a slow step down, single leg drop jump and pivot turn jump with and without a silicone web brace. 3D kinematics of the knee were collected using a ten camera Qualisys motion analysis system. Reflective markers were placed on the foot, shank, thigh and pelvis using the Calibrated Anatomical Systems Technique. A two way ANOVA with repeated measures was performed with post-hoc pairwise comparison to explore the differences between the two conditions and three tasks.ResultsSignificant differences were seen in the knee joint angles and angular velocities in the sagittal, coronal and transverse planes between the tasks. The brace showed a reduction in knee valgum and internal rotation across all tasks, with the most notable effect during the single leg drop jump and pivot turn jump. The transverse plane also showed a significant reduction in the external rotation knee angular velocity when wearing the brace.DiscussionThe brace influenced the knee joint kinematics in coronal and transverse planes which confirms that such braces can have a significant effect on knee control during dynamic tasks. Further studies are required exploring the efficacy of proprioceptive braces in athletic patient cohort.