Effectiveness of Kinesiotaping in the Treatment of Acute Ankle Sprains

Study design We conducted this prospective, randomized, blinded, clinical study in a tertiary care setting's ED of which had an annual 600000 visits between July 2013 and November 2013.

Selection of participants The patients whom reported an acutely twisted ankle were included in the study. Exclusion criteria were; patients under 18, pregnancy, legally incompetent to take responsibility, fracture at ankle and/or foot, unstable sprains requiring stabilization with cast, 48 hours since injury occurrence, multiple injuries, have neurologic deficit at lower extremities, chronic instability of ankle, had surgical treatment to ankle, knee and hip.

Interventions After signing an informed consent form, eligible subjects were recruited for the study and were randomly assigned to a kinesiotaping group or elastic bandage group. The simple random number table used for randomization. All patients included in the study were given standard therapy which includes rest for 2 days, elevation of the affected ankle from heart level, ice application for 20 minutes 3 times per day for 5 days. The kinesiotaping and elastic bandage were applied for 5 days. . Kinesiotaping group patients received kinesiotaping applications with Kinesio Tex Gold ® tapes. Lymphatic correction was applied depending on the size of ankle with 2 fan cut tapes with light paper-off tension on the medial and lateral aspects of the ankle (3) Both modalities were applied by the same certified researcher.

Pain scores were obtained using numeric pain rating scale (NPRS) from 0 to 10, with 0 analogous to ''no pain'' and 10 equivalent to ''the most severe pain encountered in life''.

Both groups were used also prescribed non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID- diclofenac sodium 75 mg per oral). After regular use for two days, patients were told to take the additional doses if only they had pain. At the control days, they were questioned whether they used any additional dose.