Effect of Taping on Knee Kinematics in Subjects with Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of knee taping on anterior tibial translation and knee joint angles in subjects with anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction. Eleven male subjects following anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (aged 25.5 ± 2.9 years) were participated in this study. The study intervention was the knee taping, including no taping, rotary taping, collateral ligament taping and combined taping. The outcome measures were the anterior tibial translations measured by KT-2000 arthrometer and the knee joint angles measured by Vicon motion analysis system. One-way analysis of variance with repeated measures was used to compare the kinematic differences among different taping conditions. The results showed that taping could reduce the anterior tibial translation. Compared to other tapings, combined taping had the greatest effect in limiting the anterior tibial translation. Taping could improve the knee joint stability by decreasing the anterior tibial translation. Furthermore, taping could decrease the internal rotation angles and increase the external rotation angles during pivoting movements. Our findings suggested that taping could be beneficial to subjects with anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction, when they were performing the high-impact sports in concurrence with pivoting movement. Taping could enhance the knee joint stability and reduce the risk of re-injury.