Effects of Lower Leg Therapeutic Taping on Balance in Central Nervous System Diseases: A Systematic Review of Literature

Context: Balance control results from multiple interactions between different systems: input from the visual, the somatosensory, and the vestibular systems are integrated and regulated by the central nervous system to ensure standing balance. One of the effective interventions is using ankle taping. The purpose of this review was to assess the effectiveness of ankle taping on balance in central nervous system diseases. Evidence Acquisition: This study is a systematic review and databases PubMed, Cochrane Library, Google Scholar, Science Direct, Ovid, Scopus, and Web of Science were searched for original scientific articles that were published between January 1990 to July 2018. Studies investigating the effect of therapeutic ankle taping on balance in central nervous system diseases were included. The PEDro quality scale was used to investigate the studies included; it investigates taping, balance, central nervous system disease. Results: Seven articles were included from 256 relevant articles. There were differences among the studies in terms of methodology, design, outcomes, sample size, procedure, etc. The results showed that using lower leg taping can be effective in balance improvement. Conclusions: Using lower leg taping can be effective in balance improvement in central nervous system diseases.