Context: Elastic bandages are commonly used in sports to treat and prevent sport injuries.
Objective: To conduct a systematic review assessing the effectiveness of elastic bandaging in orthopedic- and sports-injury prevention and rehabilitation.
Evidence acquisition: The researchers searched the electronic databases MEDLINE, CINAHL, SPORTDiscus, EMBASE, and Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro) with keywords elastic bandaging in combination, respectively, with first aid, sports injuries, orthopedic injuries, and sports injuries prevention and rehabilitation. Research studies were selected based on the use of the term elastic bandaging in the abstract. Final selection was made by applying inclusion and exclusion criteria to the full text. Studies were included if they were peer-reviewed clinical trials written in English on the effects of elastic bandaging for orthopedic-injury prevention and rehabilitation.
Evidence synthesis: Twelve studies met the criteria and were included in the final analysis. Data collected included number of participants, condition being treated, treatment used, control group, outcome measures, and results. Studies were critically analyzed using the PEDro scale.
Conclusions: The studies in this review fell into 2 categories: studies in athletes (n = 2) and nonathletes (n = 10). All included trials had moderate to high quality, scoring ≥5 on the PEDro scale. The PEDro scores for the studies in athletes and nonathletes ranged from 5 to 6 out of 10 and from 5 to 8 out of 10, respectively. The quality of studies was mixed, ranging from higher- to moderate-quality methodological clinical trials. Overall, elastic bandaging can assist proprioceptive function of knee and ankle joint. Because of the moderate methodological quality and insufficient number of clinical trials, further effects of elastic bandaging could not be confirmed.
Keywords: first-aid techniques; orthopaedics; proprioception enhancement; sports physiotherapy; taping.