The effect of treadmill gait training with patellar taping on gait abilities in chronic stroke patients

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of treadmill gait training with patellar taping on gait abilities in chronic stroke patients. Design: Randomized controlled trial. Methods: Thirty chronic stroke patients who have been diagnosed at least six months or before were recruited in Gyeongin Rehabilitation Center Hospital, located in Incheon. Patients who were enrolled in this study were randomized to experimental group (n=15) or control group (n=15). Treadmill with patella taping training group patients were applied with patellar taping when they were being trained on a treadmill. Control group patients were being trained on a treadmill without any kind of taping. Gait parameters were measured with a GAITRite Ⓡ system which evaluated gait performances. Gait trainings were done for 30 min/day, 5 days/week, for 4 weeks. Results: After treadmill training, treadmill with patella taping training group showed a significant improvement in gait abilities, including velocity, cadence, paretic and non-paretic step length, and double support period (p<0.05). However, in general treadmill group, there were no significant differences in gait parameters except velocity and cadence. There was a significant difference in gait performance in the experimental group compared with the control group, except for the gait symmetry ratio (p<0.05). Conclusions: According to this result of this study, it seems that application of patellar taping in treadmill gait training for chronic stroke patients significantly improved gait abilities of these patients. Also, we can conclude that patella taping is thought to be useful in real clinical settings where there are many chronic patients who are in need of improvement in their gait abilities.

Effects of Taping on Balance and Gait in Patients With Stroke: A Meta-analysis

“…Eighteen studies [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41] with 524 participants were included in this meta-analysis. An RCT by Gill [39] that compared the treatment effects among Kinesio taping, non-elastic taping, and treadmill groups included two separate studies: Kinesio taping vs. conventional therapy and non-elastic taping vs. Eun-Ji Kim, et al treadmill.…”

“…Because Gill [39]'s study was counted as two separate studies, a total of 12 studies applied Kinesio taping [24][25][26][27][28]31,34,36,37,[39][40][41], and seven studies applied non-elastic taping [29,30,32,33,35,38,39]. The effect size of Kinesio taping (0.555) was similar to that of non-elastic taping (0.484).…”

Effect of McConnell Patelar Taping on Walking Speed, Step Length, and Stride Length in Sub acute Stroke Patient

“…McConnell patellar taping in addition to stimulating the skin and tendons that improve joint position sense, proprioception and alignment of the patella can also cause pressure on the knee joint which causes joint stability. This is what causes an increase in walking ability, including walking speed (Shin and Chung, 2015)…”

Effects of Taping on Lower Limb Function in Stroke Patients: A Literature Review

“…Patellar taping (McConnel taping), which uses rigid, non-elastic tape, was also used as an intervention for improving balance in stroke patients by some researchers. Studies assessing its effectiveness showed improved dynamic balance ability along with improvement in gait abilities, including velocity, cadence, paretic and non-paretic step length, and double support period (22,23) . A study also compared the effectiveness of KT versus McConnel taping along with PNF techniques in stroke patients and observed that KT was comparatively more effective in improving the stance phase, balance and walking speed than McConnel taping (24) .…”