Effect on Kinesio Taping and Bracing on Treating PFPs: Analytical Essay

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Abstract

In this research paper, I wanted to know what method between Kinesio Taping and Patellar Bracing is better for treating Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome effectively. I found many research articles that had a therapeutic study on treating PFPS with Kinesio Taping and a few articles that had a therapeutic study on treating PFPS with patellar bracing. The articles that had to deal with Kinesio Taping said that it had some effect in treating the pain but had more of an effect in improving muscle strength. Patellar Bracing improved gait and extension of the legs. Patellar Bracing in PFPS may vary in how effective they are due to how the brace is designed and Kinesio Taping only improves muscle strength and flexion and only a little evidence is said to show that it reduces pain in PFPS After researching both treatments I have found that Kinesio Taping has a more consistent treatment in PFPS than in patellar bracing making Kinesio Taping a better method because there is more research about Kinesio taping than there is in bracing and bracing can vary due to the design of the brace.

Introduction

Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome (PFPS) or just Patellofemoral Syndrome also known as “runner’s knee” is usually characterized as anterior knee pain and the patella sometimes gets stuck in the trochlear groove (Aguilar & Marbán, 2015). It is a condition of patellar maltracking and malalignment (Petersen et al. 2014) and is quite common but mostly in runners. Besides runners, the patient population of this condition consists of females and young adults (Arazpour, 2013). It is a condition where you feel pain under and around your patella otherwise known as your kneecap due to the cartilage of the patella starting to break down (Dixit et al, 2007). This pain occurs Possible causes for PFPS may include the overuse of the knee, trauma, cartilage damage, muscular flexibility, and vascular disturbance. (Lankhorst et al 2012). It is also caused by muscle imbalances/weakness. Pain is felt when you are walking up or down the stairs, bending your knee, kneeling, squatting, and/or running (Campbell & Valier,2016). Athletic and unathletic people could get this although females are most likely to get this condition (Arazpour et al.2013). Accurate diagnosis for PFPS is still unknown at this point in time for most of the studies display some kind of bias (Cook et al. 2011) though that is not to say that there is no good or at least decent diagnosis to determine PFPS. Some Special Tests that diagnose PFPS are patellar grind tests, patellar tilt tests, positive theater signs, and the step-down test (Gallagher, 2012). PFPS affects daily life as you will feel pain every time you do something. In some people, PFPS can be a chronic problem if not treated properly. In some cases, the backside of the patella cartilage breaks down and softens in a condition called chondromalacia patella (Dixit et al 2007).

PFPS is significant in the medical field because it is one of the most common overuse injuries (Chang et al. 2015) and it’s hard to manage this pain. It is hard to get over and recover from this pain properly. This pain can become chronic and can interfere with your everyday life. PFPS can also be caused if you sit for too long on the computer like office workers who rarely get out of their chairs. There are multiple treatments to help reduce pain Although there is no true cure for this. One way to do this is to use Kinesio Taping. Kinesio Taping was made by Dr. Kenzo Kase in Japan back in the 1970s. Kinesio tape was made to help speed up the process of healing and to help support the muscles and joints with very few limits to the range of motion to the body. Kinesio Taping in PFPS is somewhat unknown but it does help decrease pain just by a bit. In many of the scholarly articles I have found the research on Kinesio taping found that it does not help reduce pain (Günay et al. 2017) and does not seem to be that effective as a treatment for PFPS. Another way to help treat PFPS is knee bracing. There is a very limited amount of research articles and the only meta-analysis article says that there was limited evidence to show the efficiency of a brace on PFPS (Warden et al, 2008), but the ones I have found have said that bracing can be effective in reducing pain depending on how the brace is designed. What I am trying to find out is which method of treating PFPS works better and more efficiently Kinesio taping or knee bracing. This is relevant because we need to know what method works best in helping treat PFPS. We need to see which method is better and faster to help treat or cure PFPS.

Bracing is effective depending on the brace in treating PFPS

Bracing in PFPS can be quite effective in improving flexion and reducing pain with certain types of braces. In one study, researchers studied the effects of a vacuum brace on patients with PFPS. The researchers found the vacuum brace was able to make a distraction in the joint that reduces the pain PFPS was causing (Roostayi et al. 2008) the brace was used for only one week. In one week, pain reduced from 4.84 to 2.69. In the second article, one type of brace was used on patients and decreased pain and increased walking and running (Arazpour et al. 2013). The patients in this study had their brace on for six weeks and experienced pain reduction by 59.6%. In the last article, the Patella Pro Study, researchers found 156 patients separated into three groups, in the first group, the patients did not have a brace on but were put in an exercise program that helped the treatment of patellofemoral pain in the span of six weeks. The second group received the patella brace in addition to the program to help with the treatment of PFPS, the patella brace was required to be on for six hours every day in the span of six weeks. The researchers studied both groups during the year and patients reported the changes in six weeks then 3 months then one more time in one year. The researchers found the methods of group two was more effective than the method of group one due to the use of the brace in the patients (Petersen et al. 2014). Bracing in PFPS can vary in the effectiveness of reducing pain depending on the design of the brace and how long the patients have the brace on.

Kinesio Taping does not seem to have an effect in reducing pain PFPS depending on where its taped

Kinesio Taping has very little effect in reducing pain in PFPS but it does improve strength. In one article the researchers used a double-blind study where the patients were to put apply the Kinesio tape on the affected area for forty-five minutes and the results found no significant change other than the strength of the quadriceps (Aytar et al, 2011). In a better article that compares and contrasts Kinesio Taping with McConnell taping, the researchers found Kinesio Taping to decrease some pain but it can’t align the patella (Chang et al, 2015). In a systematic review, it was found that the effect of Kinesio Taping on pain had been moderate but it has an increased effect in helping the activity of the muscle (Aguilar & Marbán, 2015). In many reports, Kinesio taping in PFPS has improved strength and flexibility in certain muscles but does not reduce the pain of PFPS. Kinesio tape has reduced pain when the tape has been applied to the quad muscles when the tape is shaped into the letter Y (Chang et al. 2015). This application of the tape has reduced effectiveness. This could be proven in another article where the tape was applied normally and studied in the patients wearing them and found that the Kinesio tape had little to no effect at all in decreasing pain (Ayatar et al. 2011).

Kinesio Taping improves blood circulation in the patella

Kinesio Tape when applied right to the patella can improve blood circulation. Kinesio tape, when applied on some parts of the muscle, can cause tension force which will pull the muscles and the folds of the skin caused by tape pulling it apart will get the blood flowing which improves pain in PFPS (Chang et al. 2015). Due to this Kinesio tape can improve not only just the muscles and flexion but can also reduce the pain more efficiently.

Bracing improves the gait of people with PFPS

Patients given the patella brace have seen an improvement in walking with PFPS. Patients who have PFPS saw their walking speed increase after only six weeks of having the patella brace (Arazpour et al. 2013). The flexion increased on the affected knee of each patient. The VAS scores have been decreased by what the patients considered what was painful for the patients.

Kinesio Taping can improve muscle activity/function in Patella Pain

Kinesio Taping helps the muscles heal when taped right. Kinesio taping is put on to help stimulate the VMO, VL muscles, IT band, and hamstring muscles (Chang et al, 2015). When Kinesio tape is applied to certain muscles, some methods of Kinesio taping are just better than other methods of Kinesio taping. KT tape can strengthen muscles around the joints (Gunay et al 2016). Treatment of the muscles with Kinesio taping has also gone as far as being performed on the gluteal, IT band, and femur muscles had been studied (Gunay et al, 2016)

Conclusion

After finding a plentitude of research about the effects of Kinesio taping and patellar bracing on treating PFPS. I have concluded that Kinesio Taping is slightly more efficient in treating PFPS than patella bracing. Kinesio Taping had much more consistent evidence of research than patella bracing while patella bracing could vary depending on how the brace is made although both methods of treating PFPS are ineffective and physical therapy might have been a much more effective method of treating PFPS to write about. After looking at multiple articles on patellofemoral pain syndrome I learned that effective methods of certain injuries or conditions are just hard to track and the best research to find this information may only have a limited amount of research done for this. I learned PFPS is a common injury that could happen to almost anyone and the management of this pain is hard. Now I have learned that it is hard finding research on a topic you don’t know about especially when the topic is very scarce and there isn’t much information on this. If I were in the sports medicine field I would probably know more about this condition and why it is caused. PFPS in sports medicine is probably very common because athletes usually get knee injuries which is just probably referred to as anterior knee pain. PFPS is probably most commonly talked about in many sports such as soccer and track just something that has to do with the overuse of your knees. It is good to know about this condition now that I have the knowledge of PFPS I would know what causes this and what could be done to rehabilitate this condition. This has impacted me, for now, I know what works and what doesn’t for PFPS and if I ever get this condition (hopefully I don’t) I would know what to do when this problem is presented to me. An athletic trainer can use this information to which method is better for treating PFPS and why it is important. Now I know that not all studies and treatments can be super effective to write a paper about. Now because of this, this has prepared me for the future to have better research on the topic I am working on.

References

Petersen,W et al. (2008). The Patella Pro study — effect of a knee brace on patellofemoral pain syndrome: design of a randomized clinical trial (DRKS-ID: DRKS00003291). BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, 15(200), 1-6. doi:10.1186/1471-2474-15-200
Arazpour,M et al. (2013). The effect of patellofemoral bracing on walking in individuals with patellofemoral pain syndrome. Prosthetics and Orthotics International 37(6) 465–470. DOI: 10.1177/0309364613476535
Roostayi, M et al. (2008). The effects of vacuuming bracing system on the patellofemoral articulation in patients with patellofemoral pain syndrome. Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice, 15 (2009), 29-34. doi:10.1016/j.ctcp.2008.09.008
Campbell & Valier. (2016). The Effect of Kinesio Taping on Anterior Knee Pain Consistent With Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome: A Critically Appraised Topic. Journal of Sport Rehabilitation, 25(3), 288-293. https://doi.org/10.1123/jsr.2014-0278
Aytar, A et al. (2011). Initial Effects of Kinesio Taping in Patients with Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome: A randomized, double-blind study. Isokinetics and Exercise Science, 19 (2011) 135–142. DOI 10.3233/IES-2011-0413
Günay,E et al. (2017). Effectiveness of kinesiotaping in the patellofemoral pain syndrome. Turk J Phys Med Rehab, 63(4), 299-306. DOI: 10.5606/tftrd.2017.711
Aguilar & Marbán. (2015). Kinesio Taping and Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome: A Systematic Review. Central European Journal of Sport Sciences and Medicine, 9(1), 47-54. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/274952565_Kinesio_Taping_and_Patellofemoral_Pain_Syndrome_A_Systematic_Review
Chang,W et al. (2015). Effects of Kinesio Taping versus McConnell Taping for Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 2015, 1-11. http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/471208

Other Sources

Cook, C et al. (2011). Best tests/clinical findings for screening and diagnosis of patellofemoral pain syndrome: a systematic review. Physiotherapy, 98(2), 93-100. DOI::10.1016/j.physio.2011.09.001
Dixit, S et al. (2007). Management of Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome. Am Fam Physician, 75(2), 194-202,204. Retrieved from https://www.aafp.org/afp/2007/0115/p194.html
Gallagher, S. (2012). Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome. http://www.performingartspt.com/Diagnosis/PAPT_Dx-_Patellofemoral_Pain_Syndrome_LAMPE[1].pdf
Lankhorst, N et al. (2012) Factors associated with patellofemoral pain syndrome: A systematic review. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 1-12. DOI: 10.1136/bjsports-2011-090369
Warden,S et al. (2008). Patellar Taping and Bracing for the Treatment of Chronic Knee Pain: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Main Online Journal Name, 59(1), 73. DOI 10.1002/art.23242

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