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Knee Braces

Epidemiology
1. Incidence of knee injury
  1. Annual: 6-22%
  2. Four years of play: 50%
  3. Occurs in 6-22% of players each year
2. Common injuries
  1. Medial Collateral Ligament injury most common
  2. Terrible triad
    1. Medial Collateral Ligament (MCL)
    2. Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL)
    3. Medial meniscus
Prophylactic brace
1. Design
  1. Titanium bar with added stiffness
2. Advantages
  1. Allows normal Range of Motion
  2. Not dangerous to others
3. Disadvantages
  1. Expensive
4. Indications
  1. Prevent injury to Medial Collateral Ligament (MCL)
5. Efficacy
  1. Unproven benefit
Rehabilitation Brace Design
1. Hinges like Prophylactic brace
2. Controls Range of Motion
  1. Has adjustable stops that limit ROM
3. Does not migrate distally
Functional knee brace
1. Indication
  1. Tries to control rotation in the ACL deficient knee
2. Disadvantages
  1. Needs extensive rehabilitation program with brace use
  2. May not be able to return to cutting sports
3. Efficacy
  1. Unproven benefit
  2. Off the shelf may be as effective as custom fit
References
1. Paluska (2000) Am Fam Physician 61(2):411

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This page was written by Scott Moses, MD. This page was last revised before 5/10/08, prior to consistent tracking of revision date. This page was last published on 2/26/2010. Please send comments and questions to the editor. Contact information may be found on the page About the Family Practice Notebook. These pages are best viewed with Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0.