Improved alignment and stability
MALALIGNMENT
ABERRANT BIOMECHANICS
INCREASED BODY WEIGHT
MUSCLE WEAKNESS
INCREASED COMPARTMENT LOADING
DECREASED ACTIVITY
DECREASED STABILITY
DECREASED CONFIDENCE
PAIN
• DonJoy ® OA braces effectively improve alignment by shifting the knee into a more valgus position in subjects with varus knees 10,37 as well as in normally aligned subjects 35 . • At approximately 10% of the gait, the point of greatest loading, the OA Adjuster brace produced the greatest corrective effect 37,38 (fig. 5). • In ACL reconstructed subjects with valgus malalignment and lateral compartment OA, a DonJoy OA brace not only reduces the knee abduction angle (fig. 6), but also tibial internal rotation angles during high dynamic loading activities 17 .
Time (s)
8 7
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
Adduction 0
6 5 4 3 2 1 0 1 3 5 7 9 11 13151719212325272931333537394143454749 Valgus brace No treatment Less varus in braced condition
Less valgus in braced condition
-2
-4 -6
-8
Abduction -10
Adjusted brace Unadjusted brace No brace
% Gait cycle
Fig. 5 : Varus angle from 0 to 50% of the gait cycle in subjects with varus malalignment. The greatest effect in the varus angle is during loading response from 0 to 20% of the gait cycle. At approximately 10% of the gait cycle, the difference between the braced and unbraced conditions was 4°. This was with a 5° dial-in of the OA Adjuster brace 31 . (Figure with courtesy of Jim Richards 38 ).
Fig. 6 : Frontal plane kinematics for no brace, unadjusted and adjusted brace conditions during hopping in subjects with valgus malalignment 17 .
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