Postural stability for taekwondo athletes with repetitive ankle sprains during a single-leg stance.
Minji Son, Changhong Youm, Jehwan Woo and 3 others
PMID 29581660WHAT IT FOUND
In taekwondo athletes with repeated ankle sprains, injured-limb sway did not differ from controls during an eyes-closed single-leg stance.
Uninjured-limb sway was greater than controls.
Key findings
01Athletes with repetitive ankle sprains scored significantly lower on the Cumberland Ankle Instability Tool than controls for both ankles.
02During eyes-closed single-leg stance, the uninjured limb showed significantly greater anteroposterior root mean square sway in the repetitive ankle sprain group than in controls.
03The repetitive ankle sprain group also showed significantly greater mediolateral root mean square sway on the uninjured limb than controls.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
The study used only 11 athletes with repetitive ankle sprains and 11 controls, and the authors said the sample may be too small to determine group differences. Participants were recruited by arbitrary sampling, and many competitive taekwondo athletes were difficult to recruit because of recent lower limb injury or surgery. The study compared existing groups at one time, so it cannot show that repeated ankle sprains caused the balance differences or that any training changed them. All participants were college-level taekwondo athletes with right-limb dominance, so the findings may not apply to athletes with a different competition level or limb dominance.
Declared interests
This study was supported by the Dong-A University research fund. The authors declared no personal relationship that could have influenced the manuscript.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the uninjured-limb sway difference as proof that repeated ankle sprains caused balance problems. This was a small case-control study, and it did not follow athletes over time or test a treatment.