According to a study published in the October 2016 issue of the Journal of Prosthetics and Orthtoics, using a decompressive knee brace is beneficial for individuals with unicompartment knee osteoarthritis (OA). Brace use resulted in reduced pain and symptoms, improved activities of daily living (ADLs) and quality of life (QoL), and increases in knee muscle strength and walking capacity.
Nineteen individuals with unilateral unicompartment knee OA participated in the study. Participants wore a knee brace for six months that decompresses the OA compartment. Muscle strength, six-minute walk test (6MWT) distance, and balance abilities were assessed at baseline and at two weeks (post) and eight weeks (final) after receiving the brace. The Knee Osteoarthritis Outcome Survey (KOOS: domains of pain, symptoms, ADLs, and QoL) and the Activities-specific Balance Confidence (ABC) scale were used at baseline, brace fitting, post, final, at three months, and six months.
The researchers found that muscle strength into knee extension and flexion increased at final compared with that at baseline (P < 0.05); the 6MWT distance improved by 68m at final compared with that at baseline; improvements on the KOOS and ABC were found at six months compared with that at baseline (P < 0.05); and no changes in balance abilities were identified (P > 0.05).
