Engineering Ankle Braces to Help Prevent Basketball Injuries

This year I fractured my ankle playing basketball. I broke my tibia and fibula through the growth plate. I was fortunate to escape surgery but couldn’t put any weight on it for 2 months, and my activity was restricted for a whole 5 months. Having gone through this made me wonder how this could have been prevented.

I did some research and found an ankle brace that helps prevent the ligaments in your ankle from overstretching and can prevent injuries. A study from the University of Wisconsin indicates that 3 times as many athletes sprained their ankle while playing basketball without ankle braces than playing with one. This study also showed 68% fewer first-time ankle injuries happened while athletes were wearing ankle braces. A study from Duke University has proven the importance of ankle braces for the elite basketball player.

Two types of ankle injuries are chronic and acute. A chronic injury can occur when there is an overuse of muscles. A symptom of the chronic injury is that you ache when you are not doing anything. The acute injury occurs when there is a traumatic event. For example, a bad foul that had lots of physical contact during a basketball game. Some symptoms of an acute injury are immediate swelling and the region where broken turns purple. An ankle brace can help prevent both types of injuries.

The engineering design of an ankle brace is important. The engineers that design ankle braces are Materials Engineers, and Biomedical Engineers. Some constraints for ankle brace design are support, comfort, and ease of application. The brace cannot be too stiff but still needs to provide support and be comfortable so the user will want to wear it and put it on correctly. The Biomedical Engineer can help design the right technology for protection of the ankle and the Materials Engineer decides which material is the most effective for these constraints.

There are 3 different categories of braces that each have their own pros and cons. These are a compression brace, semi-rigid brace, and rigid brace. It depends on how much support you need and the type of injury if you are already injured. The compression brace has support but is not the most effective. This brace is made of elastic. It is used for mild ankle sprains as well as protection in general. It enhances joint support, reduces swelling, and is fitted easily. The semi-rigid brace is used a lot. It limits ankle rolling, and applies full ankle support. This brace can be slightly uncomfortable due to the rigid side support and requires more time to put on. The rigid brace is very effective, and is the most used. It is made of hard plastic with increased side support. However, this brace is difficult to fit in most shoes.

An idea I have for future ankle brace technology to help prevent basketball injuries is to engineer a semi-rigid ankle brace using 3D printing. This would help with the constraints of support, comfort, and ease of application. A scan of your foot could be taken and 3D print a support insert for the brace to exactly fit for comfort and meet your needs of protection. It would also fit more easily inside a basketball shoe. The rest of the brace should be made of ballistic nylon for overall protection and support and lace up so it is easy to put on. This would be good because nobody would have to worry about a brace not fitting and get the benefit of it fitting perfectly.

In conclusion, with all the studies and proven facts on the benefits of using ankle braces I know I will wear an ankle brace when I play basketball in the future. After what I went through with my ankle injury I don't want it to experience it again. I'm glad that this technology has been designed by engineers in order to help basketball players.

Sources:

"Common Basketball Injuries." Singapore Sports and Orthopaedics Clinic. N.p., 1 Nov 2012. Web. 22 Feb. 2015.

Deheer, Patrick "Orthoses And Basketball Players: What I Have Learned Over The Past 15 Years" Podiatry Today. 20 Oct. 2010. Web. 22 Feb. 2015.

Gallagher, Sean PT "BioMechanics Which Ankle Brace is Right for Your Patient." Aso Ankle. 27 July 2011. Web. 22 Feb. 2015.

"The Effect of Lace-up Ankle Braces on Injury Rates in High School Basketball Players" The American Journal of Sports Medicine. N.p., 1 Nov 2012. Web. 23 Feb. 2015.

"What You Need To Know About Ankle Bracing." Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Feb. 2015.