| 英文摘要 |
Introduction: Tennis elbow is a common sports injury. Elbow braces are often used to protect the elbows of sports enthusiasts with the injury. Braces have been designed with a counterforce compression pad over the muscle belly of the wrist extensor muscles to reduce the pull force of the muscle contractions in the painful area. However, this design may reduce the strength of the wrist extensor muscles and athletic performance. Therefore, this study designed a novel tennis-elbow brace and determined its effect on wrist extensor strength, electromyography values of extensor carpi radialis brevis muscle, and pain levels for subjects with tennis elbow. Methods: Fourteen participants (six with tennis elbow and eight without) were recruited for this study. The wrist extensor strength, electromyography values of extensor carpi radialis brevis muscle, and pain scale scores during an activity were assessed under three conditions (no brace, wearing a traditional tennis-elbow brace, and wearing the proposed brace). Repeat measured two-way ANOVA was used to analyze the outcome results of wrist extensor strength, electromyography values of extensor carpi radialis brevis muscle, and pain scale scores among no brace, wearing a traditional tennis-elbow brace, and wearing the proposed brace condition. Results: The results showed that both groups had greater wrist extensor strength while wearing the proposed brace than wearing the traditional brace (p < .05). However, no difference existed in the electromyography values of the extensor carpi radialis brevis muscle between the novel and traditional braces conditions or between the groups (p > .05). The pain scale showed significantly reduced pain levels while wearing either brace compared with not wearing a brace (p < .05). Conclusion: This study indicated that wearing the proposed brace does not affect the electromyography values of the Extensor carpi radialis brevis muscle but does increase the strength of the wrist extensor muscles and reduces the pain associated with tennis elbow. |
