Kinesiotape

Kinesiotape does not appear effective for reducing swelling after a lateral ankle sprain. Some evidence suggests kinesiotaping improves straight-leg-raise hamstring flexibility testing more than a comparison condition, even without improving pain. Some evidence suggests taping may help balance in older individuals with poor balance. Research on kinesiotape produces inconsistent findings because studies measure many different outcomes, so the overall evidence is mixed rather than uniformly positive or negative. A 2014 systematic review of randomized controlled trials found that kinesiotape was no better than sham taping for pain. A 2017 systematic review concluded that taping may be useful as an adjunct treatment for patellofemoral or anterior knee pain, but not as a standalone intervention. The sham-vs-kinesiotape comparison may only show that a specific protocol is not superior to nonspecific taping, not that all tape-related sensory input is useless, because both groups still receive tape.