Joint unloading ankle brace to aid cartilage regeneration

Ankle injuries are one of the most common sports injuries that often lead to further complications such as cartilage defects. Recovery from these injuries can take a long time and a solution that could aid in the rehabilitation of these injuries is beneficial to the young and active patient group. The goal of this study is to design a device that can unload the patient’s ankle to such an extent that recovery is promoted. Using human motion analysis and a mathematical descriptive model, an unloading mechanism is designed that modifies the forces on the ankle joint. The resulting device consists of an attachment to the lower leg onto which a mechanism is attached that transfers a part of the load of the foot to the lower leg. The device is tested using a force plate set-up. The results are that the device can provide an unloading force throughout the stance phase of gait, reducing the maximum load on the ankle from 1.2 BW to 0.94 ± 0.04 BW. The proposed design is a wearable device that could be used during the rehabilitation of a patient’s ankle. The manner in which this device should be attached to the user’s leg needs further research; when these limitations are solved further testing can be initiated.

Subject

Ankle brace
Joint unloading
cartilage
repair
rehabilitation

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Student theses

Document type

master thesis

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Thesis_JNatenstedt_total_9-9.pdf

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