Tricompartment offloader knee brace reduces sagittal plane knee moments, quadriceps muscle activity, and pain during chair rise and lower in individuals with knee osteoarthritis

• Published in: Medical engineering & physics 2023-04, Vol.114, p.103975-103975, Article 103975
• Main Authors: Bishop, Emily L., Kuntze, Gregor, Clark, Marcia L., Ronsky, Janet L.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biomechanical Phenomena; Braces; Gait - physiology; Humans; Joint unloading; Knee brace; Knee extension assist; Knee Joint - physiology; Knee orthosis; Knee osteoarthritis; Lower Extremity; Osteoarthritis, Knee - complications; Osteoarthritis, Knee - therapy; Pain; Quadriceps Muscle - physiology
• ISSN: 1350-4533; 1873-4030
• DOI: 10.1016/j.medengphy.2023.103975

•Biomechanical evaluation of a novel tricompartment offloader (TCO) knee brace that provides extension assistance via liquid spring technology in patients with multicompartment knee osteoarthritis.•Study results demonstrate that the TCO significantly reduces net knee flexion moment and quadriceps muscle activity during a chair rise and lower.•Knee flexion moment and quadriceps activity are key contributors to knee joint contact forces, therefore, it is expected that the biomechanical changes resulting from TCO brace wear will result in unloading of the knee joint.•Study participants reported significant decreases in knee pain while wearing the TCO compared to not wearing the TCO brace.•The study results support the intended mechanism of joint unloading via extension assistance, and support use of the TCO brace as a conservative management tool to reduce knee pain in patients with multicompartment knee OA. The Levitation tricompartment offloader (TCO) knee brace provides an assistive knee extension moment with the goal of unloading all three compartments of the knee and reducing pain for individuals with multicompartment knee osteoarthritis (OA). This study aimed to determine the effect of the TCO brace on sagittal plane knee moments, quadriceps muscle activity, and pain in individuals with multicompartment knee OA. Lower limb kinematics, kinetics, and electromyography data were collected during a chair rise and lower to determine differences between bracing conditions. TCO brace use significantly decreased the peak net knee external flexion moment in high power mode, providing extension assistance during chair rise [p