Electromyographic biofeedback (EMG-BF) is a therapeutic technique that has been used success-fully in rehabilitation of injuries. Although it has been applied in athletes, its use in this field is not very widespread. The objective of this study is to analyze its effectiveness in the recovery of electromyographic activity of the quadriceps after meniscectomy, evaluated through isometric contraction of the vastus lateralis. The sample comprised ten professional footballers in the Spanish League (2nd Division A) who had previously suffered a meniscus injury in their knee and had undergone a meniscectomy. The intervention consisted of EMG-BF treatment lasting between 6 and 10 sessions. The electromyographic signal was recorded using a Thought Tech-nology ProComp Infiniti 8-channel biofeedback unit with a sampling rate of 2048 sam-ples/seconds. For each session a within-subject ABA design of 6 or 10 trials per session was used, with three pre- and three post-measures, which determined the gain for each session.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NA
Purpose
HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
10
The players performed 10 work sessions with EMG-BF. Each session was divided into three phases: (a) three trials without receiving feedback, (b) between six and ten trials with feedback of electromyographic activity, (c) three trials without feedback. In each trial, isometric contractions of the vastus lateralis were performed. During maximum effort isometric contraction, the software associated with the ProComp Infiniti biofeedback unit collects the amplitude, the mean and maximum electromyographic signal, and also the contraction and tightening times. The contrac-tion time comprises the interval between the start of the contraction and achievement of the desired muscle tension. The tightening time is the period in which the tension voluntarily reached is maintained. For this study, the maximum and mean elec-tromyographic activity values were considered, calculated during the muscle tension time and maintained during each trial.
Antonio Hernández Mendo
Málaga, Spain
Changes in muscle tension level
Using electrommiographic biofeedback device, the increase in muscle tension after isometric contraction was observed. Each player performed 10 work sessions (2 sessions per week) with EMG-BF. Each session was divided into three phases: (a) three trials without receiving feedback, (b) between six and ten trials with feedback of electromyographic activity, (c) three trials without feedback. In each trial, isometric contractions of the vastus lateralis were performed. For all sessions, each isometric contraction lasted six seconds and the participants rested for two minutes between trials to recover their contraction capacity. The sampling rate was 2048 samples per second.
Time frame: Each participant performed a total of 10 session during 5 weeks
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