Kinesiology tape helps with post-operative swelling after knee replacement surgery.
A Turkish study set out to investigate the effect of kinesiology tape on postoperative pain and oedema following total knee arthroplasties (TKA). The study compared kinesiology tape with a non-elastic sham tape to consider whether the elasticity of the kinesiology tape improved the pain, oedema, range of motion (ROM) and function early in the post-operative period. The taping, whether true or sham, was applied in conjunction with typical conservative post-operative physiotherapy.
The study included 192 patients that were randomized to one of three groups: kinesiology tape; non-elastic sham tape; or a control group, meaning there were 64 patients in each group. The TKA’s were performed by the same surgeon utilising the same prosthesis and surgical approach. All patients followed the same post-operative medication regime and utilized anti-embolism stockings. All patients had cryotherapy and used CPM machines daily.
For the kinesiology taping and the sham taping patients, the tape was applied on the first day post-operatively and then again on the third day post-operatively. Patients were discharged on the fourth post-operative day, and they were asked to remove the tape on day seven.
The patients were evaluated pre-operatively, on day one post-op, day three and also day ten. All measurements were done by the same investigator who was blinded to group allocation. Pain was measured with the 0 to 10 VAS scale, whilst circumferential limb measurements were taken to measure oedema and compared with the participant’s pre-operative measurements. ROM was measured with a goniometer and the Oxford Knee Score was used for functional evaluation.
The study found a statistically significant difference in oedema in the kinesiology taping group at day 10 when compared to sham taping and control group. There were no significantly different results for pain, function or knee ROM between groups, with all of them improving over the post-operative period as would be expected. Interestingly, the sham taping group had less range of movement at day 10 compared with the other groups. This may be because the sham tape was non-elastic and may have limited ROM?
The findings of this study regarding the improvement in oedema following kinesiology tape application post-operatively is consistent with the findings of several other studies. This study did not find an effect on pain with the taping groups and that may be due to the severity of post-surgical pain compared with the severity of pain in other musculoskeletal injuries where we may see some pain relief, such as ankle sprains etc. With TKA surgery involving cutting of bone material in order to fit the prosthesis, it is probably fairly optimistic to believe tape on the skin could reduce the pain experienced! It would be interesting to have a longer follow-up period to see if that made a difference in improving the pain experience and also whether it would have a positive effect on ROM. Perhaps 10 days post operatively is too short to find improvements in these parameters after such significant surgery? Typically, we would associate a reduction in oedema with an increase in ROM so perhaps this would have been more obvious over longer time frame?
This study shows that the use of kinesiology tape post-operatively can be a safe and effective contributor to reducing oedema in post-surgical patients, and contributes to the growing body of evidence that supports this use of kinesiology tape.
Cakmak, M. & Cigdem-Karacay, B. (2023). The effect of Kinesio taping on edema, pain, and functionality after total knee arthroplasty: A randomised sham-controlled double blinded clinical study. Journal of Orthopaedic Science https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jos.2023.05.012