A FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS OF AN OSTEOARTHRITIS KNEE BRACE

Knee osteoarthritis is a chronic disease that requires a long term therapeutic intervention. Symptoms of osteoarthritis are associated with altered load distributions across the knee caused by knee malalignment, which promotes disease progression. Biomechanical studies have demonstrated that the varus malalignment of the knee can be corrected with application of a knee brace. Although knee braces have shown to be both efficacious and safe in correcting the malalignment, their current designs are not commonly prescribed due to their bulkiness which creates discomfort and difficulties to patients during prolonged periods of application. Here we propose a novel design of a light, inflatable (pneumatic) knee brace which is made of soft conforming materials. Using a finite element analysis, we show that with a moderate level of inflating pressure this pneumatic knee brace can produce an unloading abduction moment that could completely attenuate the negative effect of the external adduction moment in a fully extended varus knee and thus alter the rate of disease progression.