Abstract
Chronic ankle instability (CAI) is a common condition that may develop after an ankle sprain. Compared with healthy individuals, those with CAI demonstrate excessive ankle inversion and increased peroneal electromyography (EMG) activity throughout the stance phase of gait, which may put them at greater risk for re-injury. Functional electrical stimulation (FES) of targeted muscles may provide benefits as a treatment modality to stimulate immediate adaptation of the neuromuscular system. The present study investigated the effect of a single, 10 min peroneal FES session on ankle kinematics and peroneal EMG activity in individuals with (n = 24) or without (n = 24) CAI. There were no significant differences in ankle kinematics between the groups before the intervention. However, after the intervention, healthy controls demonstrated significantly less ankle inversion between 0–9% (p = 0.009) and 82–87% (p = 0.011) of the stance phase. Furthermore, a significant within-group difference was observed only in the control group, demonstrating increased ankle eversion between 0–7% (p = 0.011) and 67–81% (p = 0.006) of the stance phase after the intervention. Peroneal EMG activity did not differ between groups or measurements. These findings, which demonstrate that peroneal FES can induce ankle kinematics adaptations during gait, can help to develop future interventions for people with CAI.
Highlights
Chronic ankle instability (CAI) is a condition characterized by repetitive episodes of the perception that the ankle is unable to support continued locomotion
These criteria included (1) history of at least one significant ankle sprain that occurred at least 12 months before the study and was diagnosed by a physician or a physical therapist based on clinical examination [53]; (2) history of at least two episodes of “giving way” and feelings of ankle joint instability, at least twice during the previous 6 months; (3) the most recent injury occurred more than 3 months before study enrollment; (4) scoring
There were no differences in baseline characteristics between groups
Summary
Chronic ankle instability (CAI) is a condition characterized by repetitive episodes of the perception that the ankle is unable to support continued locomotion. This may be accompanied by pain, local muscle weakness, and/or reduced range of motion in the ankle joint. CAI is diagnosed when recurrent ankle sprains persist for more than 1 year after the initial injury [1], and it may develop in up to 40–60% of patients with a history of an ankle sprain [2,3]. Decreased quality of life [4,5,6,7,8] and reduced physical activity [9,10,11,12] were reported in patients with CAI. Earlier onset of ankle joint osteoarthritis is linked to the presence of this condition [13,14,15,16,17,18,19]
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