Immediate Effect of Rigid Taping and Patella Stabilizing Brace on Proprioception, Functionality, and Balance in Patients With Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome

Patellofemoral pain syndrome (PFPS) is a common musculoskeletal disease with an annual prevalence of 22.7%. Pain in the anterior of the knee and/or retropatellar and/or peripatellar region patellofemoral compression force increases, squatting, climbing stairs, prolonged sitting is characterized by increased pain related activities such as flexion after.

A large number of different treatment strategies have been proposed to examine these underlying factors and to address the resulting disorders and activity limitations. PFPS in the conservative treatment of patellar taping, stretching the shortened structures, the vastus medialis obliquus, strengthening activity modification, biofeedback, neuromuscular electrical stimulation, ultrasound, and foot orthoses and brace is located. The most frequently used for the treatment of patients with high effect size physiotherapy treatment and exercise training combined treatment in order to control the pain in the short and medium term, while the external knee supports-foot orthoses (brace), kinesiotape, rigid-band is used. It is known that the most commonly recommended external support for patients in the fight against PFPS in the clinical setting is kinesiological taping and brace. However, since kinesiotaping does not show orthotic properties like brace, their comparison with each other and the study of their effects give misleading results. The use of McConnell taping, which can show similar effects with both kinesiotaping and brace, gives clinically positive results. When the literature was examined, there was no study that examined the effectiveness of brace and rigid taping comparatively. In our study, we aim to investigate the extent to which we can change the impaired patella position in PFPS with the use of rigid tape and brace in accordance with this information in the literature and to examine the possible effects of rigid tape and brace, which we will apply to patients with PFPS, on balance, proprioception, gait and functionality in patients. In line with the results we will obtain, it is aimed to increase the effectiveness of treatment and shorten the recovery time by determining the external support that will help patients exercise and their movements in daily life.

H1: McConnell taping and patella stabilizing brace applications applied to patients with PFPS differ from each other in terms of proprioception, functionality, balance and gait parameters.