Background: Bracing concepts in use today for the treatment of scoliosis include symmetric and asymmetric hard braces usually made of polyethylene (PE) and soft braces. The plaster cast method worldwide seems to be the most practiced technique for the construction of hard braces at the moment. CAD (Computer Aided Design) systems are available which allow brace adjustments without plaster. Anoth...

Materials and methods 2 asymptomatic adults, with similar physical feature. They wear a thoracolumbar bivalve brace, made with the same protocol (using CAD CAM) for reproducibility. We design the braces according to the principles of the brace immobilization: a good grip on the waist and overall tightening supports on the abdomen, thorax and lumbar. We use the gait analysis system Vicon. To use...

STUDY DESIGN Literature review. OBJECTIVE To establish consistent parameters for future adolescent idiopathic scoliosis bracing studies so that valid and reliable comparisons can be made. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA Current bracing literature lacks consistency for both inclusion criteria and the definitions of brace effectiveness. METHODS A total of 32 brace treatment studies and the curre...

BACKGROUND First author attempted to analyse medical records of patients with idiopathic scoliosis for compliance with the Scoliosis Research Society brace studies criteria. A retrospective analysis of medical records of 2705 girls treated from 1989 to 2002 was carried out. METHODS Age, Cobb, Risser and menarchal status were analyzed for compliance with the Scoliosis Research Society brace st...

BACKGROUND As a result of scientific and medical professionals gaining interest in Stress and Health Related Quality of Life (HRQL), the aim of our research is, thus, to validate into Spanish the German questionnaire Bad Sobernheim Stress Questionnaire (BSSQ) (mit Korsett), for adolescents wearing braces. METHODS The methodology used adheres to literature on trans-cultural adaptation by doing...

Previously, we reported a prospective study of 30 patients with unicompartmental osteoarthritis of the knee treated nonoperatively with an unloader brace and average follow-up of 2.7 years. Although the initial study suggested short-term benefit according to pain and function measures, the objective of the current study was to evaluate these same patients via telephone questionnaire to determin...

BACKGROUND The BSSQbrace questionnaire has been shown to be reliable with good internal consistency and reproducibility estimating the stress scoliosis patients have whilst wearing their brace. Eight questions are provided focussing on this topic. A max. score of 24 can be achieved (from 0 for most stress to 24 for no stress). The subdivision of the score values is: 0-8 (strong stress), 9-16 (m...

BACKGROUND Previous studies have shown that eccentric training has a positive effect on chronic Achilles tendinopathy. A new strategy for the treatment of chronic Achilles tendinopathy is the AirHeel brace. HYPOTHESIS AirHeel brace treatment improves the clinical outcome of patients with chronic Achilles tendinopathy. The combination of the AirHeel brace and an eccentric training program has ...

Methods So far, 4 AIS patients were recruited. Two braces were built for each patient: 1) a standard TLSO designed using the plaster-cast method (Std Brace), and 2) a brace designed and fabricated using a biomechanical 3D finite element model personalized to the patient’s geometry, and a CAD/CAM software (NewBrace). NewBrace was optimized using a computational brace simulator that allows virtua...

Although many improvements in the manufacturing of guitars have been made recently, one aspect that has often been overlooked is that of the acoustical consistency of the final manufactured product. The aim of this paper is to create a better understanding of the effect of a brace on the frequencies of vibration of the brace-soundboard system. This paper seeks to shed light on why a luthier 'tu...