Knee orthoses are prescribed for pre/post- operative or traumatic injury conditions. Most knee orthoses are for diagnoses such as osteoarthritis (OA) or Ligamentous damage to the knee joint. The design of the knee orthosis a patient receives is based on their diagnosis with regard to how the knee orthosis affects the knee joint. Prefabricated knee orthoses are usually soft wrap around or pull up designs that may or may not have joints or hinges in stays or uprights to provide support to the knee joint. Custom knee orthoses are of a rigid frame construction and apply supportive external structure to the knee joint to protect the knee from torque and certain mechanisms of injury. Ligamentous braces are true to this statement whereas OA knee braces actually also apply a three point pressure system to the knee joint to unload or separate bone spacing in the appropriate area, either medially or laterally as prescribed and identified by a patient’s physician compartmentally. Application: Since there are many different reasons to use a KO, there are many different designs. The orthotist providing the device will instruct the patient on the proper way to put the KO on to make best use of the design features of the device. The most important straps on a knee orthosis are the ones just above the bulk or muscle belly of the calf and just above the bony structure of the knee joint and condyles. The most typical issue with knee bracing is distal migration of the orthosis toward the ground when active.
