Background and Aim: The rapid growth of the athletic training profession has been accompanied by an equally rapid increase in focus on basic and clinical research. Lateral ankle sprain (LAS) is an extremely common athletic injury. Despite extensive clinical and basic science research, the recurrence rate remains high. Chronic ankle instability (CAI) following LAS is hypothesized to predispose individuals to re-injury because of neuromuscular control deficits which result following injury. No investigation has been carried out on the existence of joint position deficits in the knee joint of patients with CAI. In this study, joint position sense (JPS) was evaluated in patients with CAI.

Materials and Methods: Ten female patients with CAI and ten healthy control subjects participated in this study. JPS was evaluated by reproduction of the angles in two standing and sitting positions, and in each position two target angles were tested. The knee joints in both lower limbs of patients and the dominant knee-limb of healthy subjects were evaluated. The knee angles were measured by using a system comprised of skin markers, digital photography, and Auto CAD software. Absolute error was considered as a dependant variable.

Result: There were no significant differences between the knee JPS of dominant leg in healthy subjects and both knee joints of patients. There were also no significant differences between knee JPS in two standing and sitting positions and in two different target angles (p>0/05).

Conclusion: The result of this study suggests that subjects who have CAI do not have deficit in knee JPS when tested in sitting position and also under functional weight bearing conditions.