Stabilization of the ankle joint verified

The Institute of Sport and Sport Science at the University of Freiburg, Germany, has conducted a controlled laboratory study into the stabilizing effect of the MalleoLoc ankle orthosis.

Test subjects with unilateral chronic ankle instability wore the orthosis in a simulated injury scenario. The study showed that the MalleoLoc reduces the extent of simulated inversion movements and thus protects the upper ankle joint from damaging supination without restricting the patient‘s normal gait (see reference 2).

The results showed that a reduction in the maximum joint inversion and the inversion speed was achieved with the orthosis. The reduction is more pronounced when the injury scenario is not anticipated. In the simulation of the sprain movement , the orthosis did not restrict plantar flexion and thus had no impact on the normal gait. “This study is the first to investigate the extent to which an orthosis affects the biomechanics of the simulated injury mechanism of a supination trauma when a person is walking,” says study director Dr. Dominic Gehring. “The results clearly show that the MalleoLoc orthosis can provide functional stability to the ankle in a situation that could cause injury. This explains why injury rates can be significantly reduced through the application of semirigid orthoses.”

Ref. 2: Gehring D, et al. Expecting ankle tilts and wearing an ankle brace influence joint
control in an imitated ankle sprain mechanism during walking. Gait Posture (2013).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gaitpost.2013.11.016

Pictures: Bauerfeind