Can A Bit Of Tape Rotate Leg Bones?

Unlike others in the picture above who are skeptical and think that leg bones cannot be rotated with "a bit of tape" in 2022,  I remain open to finding out how to treat our patients with knee pain. 

Just because I cannot ride a unicycle does not mean others cannot. Similarly if the author above cannot rotate his / her patient's leg with "a bit of tape" does not mean others can't.

We do see many patients in our clinics presenting with knee pain. Even though we have very good results treating these cases, I am always on the look out on how to get these patients with knee pain better quicker. Especially those who run.

In our clinics, we almost never tape the patient's knee, especially if the cause of their knee pain is coming from elsewhere. In fact, we do not even use rigid sports tape when we do tape the patient's knee.

Using Kinesio tape compared to using rigid sports tapes to do McConnell taping, (first published in 'Physiotherapy' journal in 1986 by Australian physiotherapist Jenny McConnell) definitely produces a superior result.  

So I was really intrigued when I saw a paper that investigated the effects of using rigid sports tape for tibial internal rotation taping (IRT) and external rotation taping (ERT) done on subjects with patellofemoral pain syndrome (knee pain) during three functional tests. During double leg squat, single leg squat and maximum isometric thigh muscle contraction.

Internal rotation taping

The researchers found that compared to no taping, both IRT and ERT significantly reduced pain during the three tests, especially for those with higher pain levels initially.

External rotation taping

ERT was found to be more effective than IRT. Why? The authors did not provide any suggestions. My thoughts are that when you externally rotate your tibial (shin bone), you can activate your gluteus medius better. Remember, one of our most popular posts shows that the cause of patients' knee pain is usually coming from the hip.

To see if the two taping techniques work, let me try the ERT and IRT techniques on my colleagues in our clinics first before I unleash them on our patients. Bear in mind we still want to treat the cause of the problem and not just the pain itself.

Reference

Deng F, Adams R, Pranata A et al (2022). Tibial Internal And External Rotation Taping For Improving Pain In Patients With Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome. J Sci Med Sp. DOI: 10/1016/jsams.202204.003

*thanks to Byron and Megan for helping me with the photos