Mohammad Hadadi - Assistant Professor of Orthotics and Prosthetics, School of Rehabilitation Sciences, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences
Farzaneh Haghighat - PhD candidate, Department of Physiotherapy, School of Rehabilitation Sciences, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences
Navid Mohammadpour - MSc student, Department of Physiotherapy, School of Rehabilitation Sciences, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences,
Sobhan Sobhani - Assistant professor, Department of Physiotherapy, School of Rehabilitation Sciences, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences

Background: chronic ankle instability (CAI) is one of the most common musculoskeletal disorders in ankle joint that can cause such problems as pain, deficit in proprioception and balance and also if remain untreated can lead to subsequent problems like osteoarthritis. Although numerous studies investigated the effects of different conservative management like kinesiotape and orthosis separately on CAI; there is a lack of consensus about the superiority of these methods on improving patients’ balance. This study was aimed to compare long term effects of 3 common conservative methods of treating CAI include kinesiotape, soft and semi-rigid orthosis on balance in patients with CAI.Methods: A total of 60 patients (18-35 years old) with CAI based on eligibility criteria of the International Ankle Consortium were recruited. Participants were randomly assigned to one of the kinesiotape, soft orthosis, semi-rigid orthosis or control group in a 1:1:1:1 ratio. Participants in treatment groups received the interventions for four weeks. Primary outcome measures were static balance, dynamic balance and balance during the performance that were assessed with single leg balance test, star excursion balance test and hop test respectively. The participants were assessed before treatment and also one day after the last session of treatment.Results: After 4 weeks of treatment, all measures were significantly improved in each of treatment groups (P<0.05) with no change in the control group. Pairwise comparison of groups demonstrated significant difference between control and all treatment groups; However, no significant differences was found between kinesiotape and soft orthosis, kinesiotape and semi-rigid orthosis and also between soft and semi-rigid orthosis groups.Conclusion: Four weeks application of kinesiotape, soft or semi-rigid ankle orthosis can lead to improvements in different aspect of balance in patients with CAI; however, none of these methods had superiority to the each other.

Chronic ankle instability, Kinesiotape, Soft orthosis, Semi-rigid orthosis, Balance