Effect of ankle disk training combined with tactile stimulation to the legand foot on functional instability of the ankle

Twenty-two university students with unilateral functional instability of th e ankle participated in this study, They were randomly assigned to one of t wo experimental groups. Subjects in both groups were trained to stand on th e affected limb on an ankle disk. In group 1, two pieces of 1-cm wide nonel astic adhesive tape were applied to the skin around the lateral malleolus f rom the distal third of the lower leg to the sole of the foot before the tr aining sessions. Subjects in group 2 participated in the training sessions without the application of the adhesive tape. Training was performed for 10 minutes a day, five times per week, for a period of 10 weeks. Subjects wer e tested for postural sway while standing on the affected limb before, duri ng, and after the training period. In group 1, postural sway values decreas ed significantly after 4 weeks compared with the pretraining performance, a nd they were within the normal range after not more than 6 weeks of trainin g. In group 2, the values did not improve significantly compared with the p retraining performance until after Ei weeks of training, and they were not within the normal range until after 8 weeks of training. The findings sugge st that the 2-week earlier correction of postural sway in group 1 was due t o an increased afferent input from skin receptors that were stimulated by t he traction of the adhesive tape.