Validation of Method for Analysing Mechanics of Unloader Brace for Medial Knee Osteoarthritis

Unloader braces are one non-invasive treatment of knee osteoarthritis, which primarily function by applying an external abduction moment to the joint to reduce loads in the medial compartment of the knee. We developed a novel method using brace deflection to estimate the mechanical effect of valgus braces and validated this model using strain gauge instrumentation.Three subjects performed static and walking trials, in which the moment applied by an instrumented brace was calculated using the deflection and strain methods.
Source: Journal of Biomechanics - Category: Biomedical Science Authors: Tags: Short communication Source Type: research