BACKGROUND: Kinesiotape application is one of the non-pharmacological methods frequently used in patients with knee OA. Guidelines do not have a consensus on its use in knee osteoarthritis (OA). OBJECTIVE: In this study, we aimed to investigate the acute effect of Kinesiotape application on pain, balance, and gait performance in patients with knee OA. METHODS: We included 164 patients with grade 1 to 3 knee OA according to the Kellgren-Lawrence staging system in the study. Patients were evaluated with visual analog scale (VAS), 10-meter walking test (10MeWT), timed-up and go test (TUG-T), single leg stance test (SLST), and functional reach test (FRT) before and after taping. RESULTS: There was a significant improvement in the post-taping scores of all evaluation parameters in the Kinesiotaping group compared with pre-taping scores. Statistically significant improvement was found in all scores of evaluated parameters except FRT scores in the placebo taping group. We found a significant superiority in the mean recovery scores of the kinesiotaping group compared to the placebo-taping group in all parameters except for 10MeWT. CONCLUSIONS: We found significant improvements in both groups. The mean improvement levels in pain and balance scores were better in the KT group than in the PT group.

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