Effect of Prophylactic Knee Brace on Selection of Efficient Biomechanical Variables on Performance and Anterior Cruciate Ligament Tear Risk Factors: A Review

Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) injury commonly occurs during sport activities. Prophylactic knee brace is introduced to reduce the risk of ligament injuries but it can limit the performance. The present study was carried out to review the studies conducted regarding the effect of prophylactic knee brace on efficient biomechanical variables on performance and ligament tear risk factors.
A literature review was done on the studies published between 1980-May 2016 in PubMed, Elsevier, ScienceDirect, Springer, and SID databases. The following terms were used as keywords: Prophylactic knee brace, neoprene knee sleeve, ACL injuries risk factors, and Biomechanical factors. A total of 15 articles were selected as final articles for the present study.
Review of the literature demonstrated that athletes without injury of ligament can use prophylactic knee brace to reduce ligament tear risk factors without any significant effect on kinetic variables (strength, torque, power, balance). But most articles demonstrated that using brace can limit the kinematic variables (speed, agility, acceleration). On the other hand, literature showed that brace can improve kinetic factors (power and strength) in athletes with injury of anterior cruciate ligament, but the effectiveness of brace on reducing the ligament injury is controversial.
It is concluded that athletes without injury of ACL in the sports, in which kinematic factors (speed and agility) do not play the primary role in the success of the individuals, can use prophylactic knee brace to reduce ligament tear risk factors, while athletes with history of ACL injury can improve their kinetic variables (strength, power and balance) using prophylactic knee brace; however, the effect of knee brace on the reduction of re-injury is unknown.