Development of load reduction knee brace with interior link mechanism

Abstract

Recently, number of patients developing knee arthropathy is on the rise due to increasing number of elderly people in Japanese aging society. Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is an arthropathy developed by initial wear of knee cartilage followed by deformation of lower limb skeleton causing inflammation in a knee joint. Increased pain felt in the knee due to the OA progression can hamper with motions in daily life leading to eventual development of lifestyle related diseases such as osteoporosis. As a conservative treatment, knee braces are used and conventional braces have the two main functions of protecting the knee from external forces and stabilizing the joint.

In this research, knee braces with load reduction effect were developed. The braces have completely new mechanism that applies traction force on the knee joint to reduce the load on the medial compartment of the joint by having linkage added to the joint component on the medial side of the brace. The aim of this research was to investigate the ability of the braces to reduce the medial compartment load.