Kinesio taping reduces elbow pain during resisted wrist extension in patients with chronic lateral epicondylitis: a randomized, double-blinded, cross-over study

Yen-Ting Cho, Wen-Yen Hsu, Li-Fong Lin, Yen-Nung Lin, Yen-Ting Cho, Wen-Yen Hsu, Li-Fong Lin, Yen-Nung Lin

Abstract

Background: Lateral epicondylitis is frequently seen in racquet sport players and the treatments are usually symptomatic rather than curative. Taping therapy is cheap and easy to apply in the sport field. In this study we valued the effectiveness of Kinesio taping (KT) on immediate pain control for patients with chronic lateral epicondylitis.

Methods: We conducted a randomized, double-blinded, cross-over study with 15 patients with chronic lateral epicondylitis. All participants received two taping sessions in a random order with a 3-day interval in between: one with KT and the other with sham taping (ST). Pain perceived during resisted wrist extension and at rest using numeric rating scale (NRS), the pain-free grip strength, and the pressure pain threshold, were measured before and 15 min after the tape was applied.

Results: A significant reduction of 2.1 ± 1.6 (Z = - 3.081, P = 0.002) and 0.7 ± 0.8 (Z = - 2.428, P = 0.015) was found on a NRS with KT and ST, respectively, indicating that both taping sessions produced immediate pain relief for resisted wrist extension. Both taping sessions significantly improved the pain-free grip strength with increases of 3.31 ± 5.05 (Z = - 2.615, P = 0.009) and 2.43 ± 3.31 (Z = - 2.783, P = 0.005) kg found with KT and ST, respectively. Compared with ST, KT exhibited superiority in controlling pain experienced during resisted wrist extension (Z = - 2.168, P = 0.030).

Conclusions: Taping produced unneglectable placebo effects on pain relief and painf-free grip strength for patients with lateral epicondylitis, and KT seemed to have additional effects on controlling pain that was elicited by resisted wrist extension.

Trial registration: ISRCTN13618356 (retrospectively registered on 13/02/2017).

Keywords: Epicondylopathy; Physiotherapy; Tape; Tendinopathy; Tennis elbow.

Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The Institutional Review Board of Taipei Medical University reviewed and approved the research protocol. All participants provided written informed consent before data collection began.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Study process
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Application of Kinesio taping (KT) and sham taping (ST) for lateral epicondylitis in this study. a Kinesio taping. b Sham taping with Elastic Adhesive Tapes (3 M™). Note that the soft tissue is bulging between the tape tails from being squeezed by the tension (a), and the skin is completely smooth between the tails (b). It was difficult to differentiate between the two tape types by their appearance
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
The pain-1 kg test. During the test, participants lifted the weight while flexing the elbow from 0 to 120 degrees and returned the weight to starting position. The wrist was kept pronated during this process so that the wrist extensor muscles were isometrically contracted to counter gravity throughout the process

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