The results of the study entitled "The immediate impact of a soft knee brace on dynamic knee instability in persons with knee osteoarthritis" by Tomasz Cudejko et al. from the VU Medical Centre in Amsterdam were recently published in the Rheumatology journal. This study revealed interesting results in the area of soft compression knee braces in relation to knee osteoarthritis.
From earlier research it has already become clear that wearing a soft compression knee brace results in a reduction of self reported (subjective) instability in the knee in patients with knee osteoarthritis. In order to support this, there is a need for evidence to determine whether a soft compression knee brace can also be objectively shown to have a beneficial impact on dynamic instability.
The researchers set two objectives:
- Evaluation of the effect of a soft compression knee brace for objectively conformable dynamic knee instability;
- To provide evidence for use of a tight or less tight soft compression knee brace.
To obtain the results, 38 patients with knee osteoarthritis who stated they suffered from instability were investigated. The primary form of assessing results was dynamic knee instability, expressed as "perturbation response" (PR). The PR is expressed in the average varus/valgus angle during walking after an externally administered mechanical disturbance.
The most important results are:
- Wearing a knee brace offers a significant improvement in stability compared to not wearing a brace;
- Whether or not the brace was tightly or loosely fixed resulted in no difference.
For Push Braces, these were a very interesting set of results. This is actually the first study that has shown, through objective and subjective questioning, that wearing a knee brace reduces knee instability in people with knee osteoarthritis. The positive results that show the benefits of soft compression knee braces, such as the Push care Knee brace, offer a solution for patients with knee osteoarthritis. It may be possible that wearing a knee brace results in less symptoms and a reduction in the speed of wear in the joint cartilage due to the restricting action of the brace on the PR, according to the researchers.