Abstract
BackgroundExercise related leg pain (ERLP) is a common lower limb overuse injury characterised by pain located between the knee and ankle that occurs during activity. The high incidence of the condition, subsequent interference with participation in physical activity and substantial recovery time, highlights a need for effective interventions. Whilst many interventions have been described for the management of ERLP, currently there is a lack of high quality evidence for an effective intervention for the condition.Methods/DesignA single-blinded randomised controlled clinical trial will be conducted in a community setting. Forty-five female volunteers aged between 18 and 40 years with a history of insidious onset of pain located between the knee and ankle of at least one month duration that is aggravated by weight bearing activities will be recruited for the study. Suitable participants will be randomly allocated to one of three treatment groups for the 6 week intervention period: (i) exercise only, (ii) rigid anti-pronation tape and exercise, (iii) elastic anti-pronation tape and exercise. Outcomes will be measured at baseline, 1, 2 and 6 weeks using primary outcome measures of usual and worst pain visual analogue scale and global perceived improvement. Secondary outcome measures will include Foot and Ankle Ability Measure, Patient Specific Functional Scale and amount of activity in the previous week. In addition, participants will be contacted by phone to obtain primary and secondary outcome measures at 12, 18, 24 and 30 weeks.DiscussionThis article describes a single-blinded randomised controlled clinical trial that will utilise high quality methodologies in accordance with CONSORT guidelines. The results of this study will contribute to the limited knowledge regarding effective interventions for the management of ERLP.Trial registrationAustralian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ACTRN12613000914763)Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1471-2474-15-328) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Exercise related leg pain (ERLP) is a common lower limb overuse injury characterised by pain located between the knee and ankle that occurs during activity
The results of this study will contribute to the limited knowledge regarding effective interventions for the management of ERLP
Exercise related leg pain (ERLP) is a lower limb overuse injury characterised by pain located between the knee and ankle that occurs during activity
Summary
This study will be the first randomised controlled trial to evaluate the effectiveness of anti-pronation taping and lower limb muscle training for ERLP. The lower limb muscle training selected for this randomised controlled trial includes two exercises; one aimed at the plantar intrinsic foot muscle and one aimed at the external rotator and abductor muscles of the hip. The weight bearing exercise progression was selected to increase complexity and to facilitate relevance to the functional tasks of walking and running It was chosen as it closely resembles the midstance position of these activities and has been used in previous studies to target gluteal strengthening in other lower limb overuse conditions [38,39].
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