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Abstract
To determine the immediate effects of applied kinesio tape on kinematics and spatiotemporal gait parameters of acute hamstring strain injury. A 19 year old male football player presented to sports medicine clinic with complaints of left knee hamstring strain. Three dimensional gait analyses were done after application of kinesio tape on patient. The taped condition in knee total excursion was nearly 5 degrees higher than the untaped condition in the left knee kinematics results. Especially, increased knee flexion of nearly 10 degrees in terminal swing phase that activated hamstring muscles in gait cycle. Cadence was clinically increased taped condition. Our report results demonstrated kinesio taping increased knee flexion ROM apply on hamstring muscle strain, thus a positive effect on muscle activation.
Key Words: taping, knee flexion, hamstring strain.
Introduction
Acute hamstring strain injury is known as the second-most common injury in track and field, soccer, rugby and football (1,2,10,13,16). This injury type consists of the biceps femoris and along an intramuscular tendon and in the adjacent muscle fibers. Injuries generally occur in the semimembranosus along the proximal free tendon (3,4,13). Kinesio tape (KT) is being widely used to prevent injuries to athletes, for rehabilitation and also to treat several musculoskeletal disorders (14,15).
Kinesio tape was developed in 1970s by Dr. Kenzo Kase. This alternative taping technique, theorized by Kase, had been suggested to introduce the beneficial effects of the tapes including effects on strength, control and performance, as well as reduction in pain, prevention of injury, inhabitation and facilitation of motor activity, improvement of a variety of physiological problems, including the range of motion, based on the functions of the tape (6,9,12) KT mechanism, by which KT exerts its hypothesized effects, has not clearly demonstrated the effectiveness of its methodology yet. KT has been show to support muscle movement, relieve abnormal feeling or pain on the skin. Mori et al suggested that KT normalizes muscle function (11). Kase et al believed that the stretch rate and width of the KT affected the facia and flow of lymph fluid (9). Kinesio taping reduced cervical pain and increased range of motion (ROM) 24 hours following whiplash injury (5). Slupik et al showed a preliminary effect on quadriceps peak torque and electromyographic activity in healthy...