Prophylactic knee sleeve significantly reduced pathologies related to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) among athletes, finds a recent study published in “Journal of Sports Rehabilitation”. 

The knee braces are generally utilized to impede high-risk knee injuries. However, its contribution to ACL pathologies attenuation is not well known. Jonathan Sinclair and Paul J. Taylor conducted a study to investigate knee sleeve effect on ACL related injuries among 13 healthy male recreational athletes. Athletes were categorized into two groups; one with prophylactic knee sleeve and other was without knee sleeve. Both groups went through cut, run and single-leg hop movements. An 8-camera with 3D motion capture system and a force platform was used to record biomechanical data. The quantification of instantaneous, average and peak ACL load rate was done via musculoskeletal modeling approach.

Both instantaneous and average ACL load rates were remarkably decreased when wearing knee sleeve in the cut (222.55/1058.02 N/kg/s) and hop (612.45/1286.39 N/kg/s) movements as compared to no knee sleeve group (377.38/1183.01 and 743.91/1471.42 N/kg/s, respectively).

As per results, a relationship was noticed between etiology of ACL injuries and ACL loading. This reflects that athletes can recover from ACL injuries via wearing a prophylactic knee sleeve, typically during the hop and cut movements.