Tehran University Medical Journal

Background: Sports injuries of the knee joint are very common. There are both contact injuries and non-contact injuries. Contractile injuries may be due to an impairment of the knee joint position sense or a decrease of the quadriceps muscle strength. Using a Kinesio taping method may decrease this impairment. The aim of the current study was to assess the effect of direction and tension of Kinesio taping of the quadriceps muscle on repositioning sense of the knee joint and maximum concentric and eccentric torque of the knee extensors.
Methods: Twenty-one recreationally active healthy males, determined by convenient non-probability sampling method, participated in this quazi-experimental study. The tests were performed in biomechanics laboratory of School of Rehabilitation of Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran, between July to November 2017. They visited biomechanics laboratory 5 sessions. The first session was for familiarization with the main tests and signing an informed consent form. For 2 through 5 sessions, one of each Kinesio tape tension approaches of 100, 115 and 140 percent (origin to insertion direction) and 100 percent (insertion to origin direction) was randomly applied on the quadriceps muscle. Active and passive repositioning sense of the knee joint at 60-degree flexion and maximum concentric and eccentric torque of the knee extensors of the dominant extremity before and after Kinesio taping were measured using a Biodex System 3 isokinetic dynamometer (Biodex Medical Systems, Shirley, NY, USA). Order of measuring active and passive repositioning sense and maximum concentric and eccentric torque of the knee extensors were randomly selected.
Results: Origin to insertion Kinesio taping method with tension of 100, 115 and 140 percent significantly decreased means of active and passive repositioning sense errors (P< 0.05) and changed means of maximum concentric and eccentric torque of the quadriceps muscle (P< 0.05). But, insertion to origin Kinesio taping did not change significantly any parameter (P> 0.05).
Conclusion: According to the results, Kinesio taping could influence on repositioning sense of the knee joint at 60-degree knee flexion. Maximum concentric and eccentric extensor torques was also increased.

Background: The back extensor muscles are the main spinal supportive factors which function establishes spinal stability and erect posture of the spine. Spine deviation from the ideal alignment, like abnormal increase in the forward curvature of the thoracic spine may cause changes in the trunk muscle activity which can lead to a change in the spinal proprioception. It seems that the corrected spinal alignment as a result of an orthotic treatment course facilitates the back muscles activity and improve proprioception. The present study aimed to investigate the changes occurring in thoracic kyphosis, trunk extensor muscle strength and trunk extensor force sense after using the Spinomed orthosis in elderly people with hyperkyphosis.
Methods: Twenty-six elderly people with hyperkyphosis who met the eligibility criteria participated in this preliminary study at School of Rehabilitation Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran, from August to November of 2017. Subjects were randomly allocated to the experimental (wearing the orthosis with maintaining the daily physical activities) and control (maintaining daily physical activities) groups. Degree of kyphosis, absolute error of force sense and trunk extensor muscle strength were measured in all participants before and after intervention for 9 weeks.
Results: Thirteen elderly people with 63.85±4.63 years old in the experimental group and thirteen elderly people with 66.92±3.25 years old were participated in data analysis. The results showed significant reduction in degree of kyphosis (P<0.001) and absolute error of force sense (P=0.001), and improvement of trunk extensor muscle strength (P=0.021) in the experimental group. Independent t-test results showed a significant difference between experimental and control groups with better outcomes in terms of posture correction (P<0.001) strength (P=0.002) and force sense (P=0.035) in the orthosis group.
Conclusion: Using Spinomed orthosis for 2 months (2 hours per day) appears to have some benefit in terms of back extensor muscle strength and muscle force control. Also, Spinomed orthosis can be prescribed to improve spinal posture.