Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Knee Osteoarthritis Following Injury

Certain types of injury have been associated with a significantly higher risk of developing osteoarthritis at an early age.

Anterior Cruciate Ligament rupture is one such event, but potentially much more serious is a fracture that passes through the knee joint.

Known as an intra-articular fracture, it can lead to rapid wearing of the joint surface and early onset knee osteoarthritis.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Do Unloader Knee Braces Make a Knee Straight Again?

Unloader Knee Braces can be used by people who are both Knock-kneed and Bow-legged.

As the knee becomes progressively more worn by the osteoarthritis disease process, the angle at the knee slowly increases.

Although the primary reason for wearing an Unloader Knee Brace is to decrease pain, some people hope the brace will also straighten their knee as well. 

An Unloader does apply a force pushing against this angulation but there is generally little change in overall leg position. The brace does enough to relieve pain but the force required to physically straighten the leg would be so great it would be painful to wear. Modern unloading knee braces are more subtle in their workings and are comfortable to wear. If you are looking to see a large leg angle correction you will likely be disappointed.