Five hundred and eighty high-school football players were studied over a
period of two seasons to determine the effect of so-called prophylactic
knee braces on the lower extremity. Two hundred and forty-seven athletes
who wore single-hinged braces and eighty-three who wore double-hinged
braces were paired for the same season of play with 250 athletes who were
similar in height, weight, and playing position but who did not wear
braces. The fifty-three injuries of the knee that occurred were
significantly more frequent (p less than 0.001) in the group that wore
single-hinged braces than in the matched, non-braced group. While there
were more injuries of the knee in the participants who were double-hinged
braces than in the matched controls, who did not wear braces, the increase
in the number of injuries was not significant. There was also a dramatic
increase (p less than 0.01) in the number of injuries of the ankle and foot
in the athletes who wore braces. Our results question the efficacy of the
braces that were studied and call attention to the potentially adverse
effect of the braces on adjacent joints in the ipsilateral limb.