Comparative studies of physical properties of kinesiotapes.

BACKGROUND: Nowadays we observe growing popularity of kinesiotaping as a supportive method in physiotherapy. In documents available on kinesiotaping we can find that mechanical properties of tapes are similar to the ones of a human skin, but usually there is hardly any numerical data characterizing these properties.

OBJECTIVE: Therefore, testing and comparing physical properties of commercially available kinesiotapes seems to be important.

METHODS: Physical properties of five commercially available kinesiotapes were examined. Strain vs. stress data was collected up to 15 N. Program Origin 9.0 was used for data analysis.

RESULTS: The obtained results show that up to about 2 N the strain vs. stress characteristics of the tested tapes are similar while for greater stress they differ essentially.

CONCLUSIONS: An alternative, to commonly used, way of defining relative strain is proposed. This definition could be more suitable in those cases when desired tape tensions are higher than 50% i.e. in ligament and tendon techniques.