BACKGROUND There are many opinions and controversies regard the effect of lateral wedge insoles and valgus stress 3point knee braces in treatment of medial compartment knee osteoarthritis (OA). In this study we compared the effect of lateral wedge insoles and 3 point knee supports in treatment of medial compartment knee OA. METHOD Sixty patients (35-65 years), with knee pain and genu varum an...

Braces today are named according to the author's name or town. The existing classification of braces considers only the anatomical spinal section involved (C: cervical; T: thoracic; L: lumbar; S: sacral; Orthosis). The absence of a more detailed classification do not allow to really distinguish between the different braces and to have a common language between the conservative treatment experts...

Decreases in patellofemoral pain have been demonstrated with bracing; however, the mechanisms of pain reduction remain unclear. Our purpose was to evaluate the hypothesis that patellofemoral bracing decreases peak pressure on the retropatellar surface through an increase in patellofemoral contact area. Nine cadaveric knees were tested during simulated free-speed walking with no brace, a knee sl...

Materials and methods This is a retrospective study examining coronal plane spine radiographs of 27 adolescents diagnosed with idiopathic scoliosis and prescribed a Boston Brace-style thoracolumbosacral orthosis. Cobb angle, decompensation of C7, and Overall Balance Summation (OBS) (Carlson and Smith, 2007) were measured on pre-brace, in-brace, and immediately post-brace x-rays for each subject...

Purpose Based on the practice of wearing a scoliosis brace immediately after exercising to stabilize the stretch effect at the ligaments and the intervertebral disks[1], the purpose of this study was to reveal the importance of wearing the brace after performing exercises. Another goal of this study was to observe any changes in the major problems associated with adult scoliosis: pain, posture ...

BACKGROUND Functional treatment is a widely used and generally accepted treatment for ankle sprain. A meta-analysis comparing the different functional treatment options could not make definitive conclusions regarding the effectiveness, and until now, little was known about patient satisfaction in relation to the outcome. METHODS Patients with acute ankle sprain received rest, ice, compression...

Bracing is a widely used treatment of scoliosis, but there is still no consensus about its actual effect. Previous studies were based on global descriptors of the spine shape (Cobb angle, plane of maximal deformity, etc.). We present a new method to analyze braces effects at a finer scale and to find which vertebral levels are significantly affected by this treatment. The proposed method compar...

Bracing is the main non-surgical intervention in the treatment of idiopathic scoliosis during growth, in hyperkyphosis (and Scheuermann disease) and occasionally for spondylolisthesis; it can be used in adult scoliosis, in the elderly when pathological curves lead to a forward leaning posture or in adults after traumatic injuries. Bracing can be defined as the application of external corrective...

OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS The majority of laryngectomy patients fail to use a hands-free valve on a daily basis, mainly due to fixation problems of the adhesive baseplate housing. To support adhesive housings during hands-free speech a new external neck brace (ENB 2.0) was developed. The effect of the brace was assessed in terms of a qualitative assessment, adhesive lifetime, maximum phonation time...