SLR - February 2012 - Daniel Arrhenius
Reference: McGuine TA, Brooks A, and Hetzel S. Am J Sports Med 39:9, 1840-8, 2011.
Reviewed by: Daniel Arrhenius, DPM
Residency Program: Detroit Medical Center
Podiatric Relevance:
Basketball is one of the most popular sports in high schools across the United States. An estimated 1 million high school athletes, both male and female, participate in basketball annually. Acute ankle sprains are very common among this population. Ankle injuries affect the athlete not only during their athletic careers, but often later on in life as well. These injuries may precede chronic ankle instability, osteoarthritis, and a decrease in quality of life and activity. This study examines whether laced-up ankle braces affects the severity and incidence of acute ankle injuries in the basketball player.
Methods:
1460 male and female basketball players from 46 high schools were randomly assigned to a braced or control group. The players in the braced group wore lace-up ankle braces during the 2009 and 2010 basketball season. Athletic trainers recorded athlete exposures, injuries, and compliance. The severity of injury was measured in days lost and was tested with the Wilcoxon rank-sum test. Time to first acute ankle injury between the control group and braced group were compared using Cox proportional hazards models.
Results:
A total of 78 acute ankle injuries were sustained by players in the control group, while 27 acute ankle injuries were sustained by players in the braced group. The rate of acute ankle injury per 1000 exposures was 0.47 in the braced group and 1.41 in the control group (p<0.001). The severity of acute ankle injury was found to be similar in the control and braced groups (p=0.23). The median days lost in the braced group was 5.0 days compared with 6.0 days in the control group.
Conclusions:
The use of lace-up ankle braces among male and female high school basketball players reduced the incidence but not severity of acute ankle injuries in those that had history of previous injury and those that did not. Wearing lace-up ankle braces may be a cost-effective injury prevention strategy in male and female high school basketball players.