A 26-year-old man who was serving in the military was referred to a physical therapist for an acute right elbow sprain following a fall on an outstretched hand 36 hours prior. The patient reported immediate pain and restricted elbow motion following the injury. Because the history and physical examination findings were concerning for a possible radial head fracture, the physical therapist ordered elbow radiographs. The anterior-to-posterior radiographic view revealed a nondisplaced longitudinal radial head fracture involving the lateral one third of the radial head, while the lateral radiographic view revealed lucencies anterior and posterior to the distal humerus, indicating displacement of the anterior and posterior fat pads due to joint effusion. The patient was referred to an orthopaedic physician for fracture management. At 6 weeks following the injury, he successfully returned to full unrestricted activity, with no residual deficits.

J Orthop Sports Phys Ther 2010;40(1):30. doi:10.2519/jospt.2010.0401

KEY WORDS: elbow, radiographs

STUDY DESIGN: Prospective, randomized, double-blinded, clinical trial using a repeated-measures design. OBJECTIVES: To determine the short-term clinical efficacy of Kinesio Tape (KT) when applied to college students with shoulder pain, as compared to a sham tape application. BACKGROUND: Tape is commonly used as an adjunct for treatment and prevention of musculoskeletal injuries. A majority of tape applications that are reported in the literature involve nonstretch tape. The KT method has gained significant popularity in recent years, but there is a paucity of evidence on its use. METHODS AND MEASURES: Forty-two subjects clinically diagnosed with rotator cuff tendonitis/impingement were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 groups: therapeutic KT group or sham KT group. Subjects wore the tape for 2 consecutive 3-day intervals. Self-reported pain and disability and pain-free active ranges of motion (ROM) were measured at multiple intervals to assess for differences between groups. RESULTS: The therapeutic KT group showed immediate improvement in pain-free shoulder abduction (mean ± SD increase, 16.9° ± 23.2°; P = .005) after tape application. No other differences between groups regarding ROM, pain, or disability scores at any time interval were found. CONCLUSION: KT may be of some assistance to clinicians in improving pain-free active ROM immediately after tape application for patients with shoulder pain. Utilization of KT for decreasing pain intensity or disability for young patients with suspected shoulder tendonitis/impingement is not supported.  LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Therapy, level 1b-.

J Orthop Sports Phys Ther. 2008;38(7):389-395, published online 29 May 2008. doi:10.2519/jospt.2008.2791

KEY WORDS:  impingement, rehabilitation, taping