Professional Fitting of Knee Braces

Bledsoe 護膝專業配對

Functional Knee Braces for Bow Legs

Bow Legs affect the appearance and self-confidence of the user. The compressive pressure exerted on the inner side of the knee joint is greater than that on the outer side, making the cartilage there prone to wearing. With age, the bow-leggedness is progressively deteriorated and consequently develops into degenerative arthritis. Is there any solution that alleviates the pain and slows down the deterioration?

Functional Knee Braces for Torn/Injured Cruciate Ligaments

There are over 2,000 cruciate ligament injuries in Hong Kong each year. 85% involve tears of the anterior cruciate ligaments (ACL) and 1000 of which require ligament reconstruction surgery. Functional knee braces can provide mechanical support for people with injured or weakened anterior and posterior cruciate ligament. It helps resisting the anterior translation of the shin bone (or tibia) and thus stabilising the knee joint.

Functional Knee Braces for Bow Legs

Our knee is one of the most vulnerable areas of injury. Persistently, it requires bearing up of more than three quarters of our body weight. For upstairs, for instance, the compressive pressure could be as much as two to four times of our body weight. Healthy cartilages function effectively as a natural cushion within the knee joints to reduce the drastic pressure and friction. With aging, the cartilage will be susceptible to physiologically natural wear and tear leading to degenerative arthritis. The bow-leggedness, however, results in uneven compressive pressure within the knee joint. This exaggerates the cartilaginous rubbing and rocking, and then pathologically leads to early onset of degenerative knee arthritis.

O形腳

O-leg

During the phase of single leg stance of normal walking, the inner side of the knee joint mechanically bears 68% of the body weight while the outer side 32%. Therefore, the inner compartment of the knee is highly vulnerable to degenerative osteoarthritis. Pain is more likely to be on the inner side of the knee.

o leg knee

Common symptoms of Medial Compartmental Osteoarthritic Knee include:

Pain on the inner side the knee
Morning stiffness of the knee joint
Heat and swelling of the knee
Crepitus (sounds of rocking, clicking, or rubbing) from moving knee

knee brace fitting

Breg Knee Brace

This is a vicious cycle. With bow-leggedness, the cartilage of the inner side of the knee joint is very likely susceptible to be worn out and becoming thinned over time and predisposing to the onset of the inner compartmental osteoarthritis. The collapse of the inner cartilage will exaggerate its thinning out process which increases the bending angle and thus the curvature of the bow leg. The deteriorated bow leg generates even more pathological pressure on the degraded cartilage which further accelerates the progressive degeneration of the knee.

In view of this, fitting service of the functional knee braces we provided is the critical solution to the problems related to bow legs. A functional knee brace for bow leg has been evidence-proven effectively to alleviate the compressive pressures exerted on the inner side of the knee when walking. In turn, it could reduce the pain and the ongoing wear and tear of the affected areas, and slow down the rate of knee degeneration.

How much do you know about the torn cruciate ligaments?

The knee joint is structurally made up of two groups of ligaments, the cruciate ligament, and the medial and lateral collateral ligaments. They function together to act like ropes to hold the joint in its normal position and ensure optimal stability during movement. The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is the most common among all ligament injuries, accounted for over 85%.

The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is possibly to be torn by excessive movement, collision, or traumatic accident. After the injury, due to abnormal forward shifting of the shin bone, the users may experience instability or “giving way” during movement. It is more pronounced particularly when walking up and down stairs and during exercises.

韌帶撕裂

Fitting of a Functional Knee Brace to minimize the Recurrent of Tears

A torn ACL can cause knee instability, which will, not only hinder movement, but also predispose to meniscal wear and knee arthritis in the long term. In fact, the chance of recurrent of the ACL tear within 3 years of post-operation is very high. It accounts as high as 50% for young athletes. For this reason, many overseas sports teams have already practised to use functional braces for knee ligaments during training and even competition as a prophylactic measure for the recurrence of ACL injury.

Why choose us?

Our pedorthists and prosthetists provide knee assessments, demonstration of the correct way to wear and professional fitting of a knee brace. Arrangement of the follow-ups is the cornerstone to help customers with knee pain to get back their healthy lives.

Knee Assessment

Our pedorthists will assess the customers’ knee problems, including the pain location, range of motion, structural malalignment and, if necessary, X-rays to assess the degenerative conditions. Our pedorthists dedicate to provide professional advice on the selection and fitting of the required functional knee brace.

Knee model

knee exam

Fitting of Knee Brace

Our pedorthists dedicate to select the most suitable knee brace according to the customers’ conditions. The knee brace will be fitted for further walking trials on level ground and up and down stairs to assess the functional performance. The angle of correction will be adjusted if necessary.

knee brace

knee brace

Demonstration of Wearing Knee Brace

Our pedorthists dedicate to demonstrate to the users the correct way to fit the knee braces to avoid impairing function.

knee brace fitting

護膝配對

Follow up

We usually arrange routine check-ups after one to two weeks of the fitting to assess the effectiveness of the knee brace and adjust the correction angle as necessary.