Knees mend either way
FOLLOWING anterior cruciate ligament surgery, some doctors recommend a costly, rigid knee brace for support during recovery and others a neoprene sleeve. A new study finds that neither works better than the other.
ACL tears, in which a stabilizing knee ligament is fully or partially ripped, are common among athletes. While a patient is recovering from surgery, braces and sleeves are frequently prescribed by doctors to keep the knee secure.
The study, presented last week at the annual meeting of the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine, split 150 male and female athletes into equal groups who wore either a functional knee brace or neoprene sleeve.
After two years, knees were measured for stability. There was a 0.1 millimeter difference between the two groups in the degree of movement between the two bones of the knee, the researchers found. And on a quality-of-life questionnaire that covered symptoms, sports participation and lifestyle, the two groups differed by one point out of 100.
“When we talk about the average patient, this study provides pretty strong evidence that a brace isn’t required,” says Trevor Birmingham, lead author of the study and chairman in musculoskeletal rehabilitation at the Fowler Kennedy Sport Medicine Clinic in Ontario, Canada. However, he adds, there could be a subset of patients for whom such a brace would be useful.
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