An in vivo analysis of the effectiveness of the osteoarthritic knee brace during heel-strike of gait

The objective of this study was to analyze the effects of off-loading knee braces in patients diagnosed with symptomatic unicompartmental osteoarthrit is. Under fluoroscopic surveillance, 15 patients were asked to perform norm al gait on a treadmill. Each patient was asked initially: to walk without u sing a knee brace and then to walk while wearing a brace. The fluoroscopic images of the patients at heel-strike were downloaded to a workstation comp uter. Condylar separation angle of the knee joint and the distances from th e medial and lateral femoral condyles to the tibial plateau (condylar separ ation) were measured. Twelve of 15 patients (80%) reported relief of pain a nd demonstrated condylar separation of the degenerative compartment with th e use of the off-loading brace. The 3 patients who did not demonstrate cond ylar separation were obese, making accurate brace fitting difficult. The av erage change in condylar separation and condylar separation angle was 1.2 m m (range, 0.0-4.5 mm) and 2.2 degrees (range, 0.0 degrees-7.8 degrees). Thi s study demonstrated that condylar separation of a degenerative knee compar tment can be achieved with off-loading braces with subsequent subjective re lief of knee pain.