PRESSURE MEASUREMENT BETWEEN A FUNCTIONAL KNEE BRACE AND THE LEG

Authors

  • Mario Lamontagne

Keywords:

knee, brace, pressure measurements, jump

Abstract

When functional knee brace is applied on the leg, the kinematics and kinetics of the knee may be changed due to the relative motion of the brace to the leg and by external compression induced by the straps of the knee brace (DeVita, Lassiter, Hortobagyi, & Torry, 1998; Styf, Nakhostine, & Gershuni, 1992). If the brace moves during dynamic movement, the alignment of both centers of rotation of the knee and brace might induce more resistance to the motion. At the same time, the external compression by the strapping of the brace might cause high intramuscular pressure beneath the area of the brace straps. The intramuscular pressure under the strapping decrease local muscle blood flow and muscular oxygenation, and induce premature muscle fatigue. In this situation, functional knee braces do not improve performance and may even inhibit performance in asymptomatic athletes. The purpose of this on-going research was to measure the knee brace migration on the leg and pressure induced on the leg by the brace straps during dynamic motion. This work will only report the results on pressure and force measurements.

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