Artikel
Improvement in function after valgus bracing of the knee
Suche in Medline nach
Autoren
Veröffentlicht: | 13. Juni 2005 |
---|
Gliederung
Text
The use of a valgus brace can effectively relieve the symptoms of unicompartimental osteoarthritis of the knee. We studied a brace designed to decrease loads on the medial compartment in knees with chronic pain and osteoarthritis to determine if pain symptoms decreased, function improved and the plantar pressure characteristics altered during walking.
21 Patients were fitted with a commercially available brace and were evaluated after 6 and 12 weeks and after 6 months. The Larson- and Gillquist-score were used to analyze symptoms and functional limitations. The brace was worn an average of 8 hours a day, 7 days weekly. 19 of 21 patients reported immediate symptomatic improvement with less pain on walking, 8 patients reported an improved walking distance of the knee. In the plantar pressure distribution there was no difference found in the measurement with or without the brace.