Knee Brace opinions

[craig1912]

Brief history, around 30 years ago I had medial cartilage removed from right knee and then a year later I ruptured my ACL which was never repaired. I’ve managed for the last 30 years and it hasn’t stopped me doing anything but went skiing in April and damaged my knee. Seen a Specialist and MRI and no further real damage. MRI confirmed OA in medial side (bone on bone) and chronic ruptured ACL. All other bits are OK. Specialist is reluctant (understandably) for anything to invasive other than maybe an injection.
Knee recovered and was fine (occasional twinge on medial side) but then caught Covid and woke up with seized up knee. It’s recovered a little and will be going back to specialist as I can’t fully extend it or fully bend it.
Anyway Ive been talking to a physio who has recommended an off loader knee brace to wear day to day and help train muscles and keep load off medial side. I’d like to be able to get walking 8/10 miles a day again but currently 2/3 miles is manageable with a limp!
These braces are fairly expensive (£500ish) which I don’t mind paying for if they are a part solution.

Does anyone use one or have any opinion?

Thanks

[The_Doc]

Offloader braces are excellent, but not easy to use.

Let me put together an answer for you later this weekend.

Ahead of this, we use BREG and Ossur, after many years of trying the market, but this isn't the full answer.

[craig1912]

Thanks look forward to hearing from you

[The_Doc]

Offloading the knee

The first thing to ask is "Where is the pain? Is this compartment the one to be offloaded?"

The weightbearing (Mikulicz) line, as shown above is where the weight passes, and it can shift towards the painful area.
All you can ask is that your brace reverses this change, or puts the line into the other compartment.
You might find that your weightbearing line is already in the (good) non painful side. So offloading will do nothing for you.

So would you choose a Lateral Offloader, or a Medial Offloader?

Next is to accept that the offloading can only occur when the brace is tightly applied to the leg. So they are often quite snug and so they limit activity. But you only know by trying.

I work in one of the UK's highest volume osteotomy centres. Osteotomy is when we break, shift and fix the leg in a new position, which duplicates the effect of an offloader. The osteotomy is an offloading bony procedure.
So we test out our surgical patients by sending them off with an offloaded brace for 2-3 months as a "dry run"
100s of operations later, you work out what an offloader can do and can't do.

You could just ask your GP to refer you to an osteotomy surgeon and you'd get the brace for free.
Or you could buy one from Ossur, BREG, DonJoy, or MEDI . These are the proper companies that I rate.

[craig1912]

Thanks Doc, Interesting stuff.
I’m guessing it would not be wise to order something online.
I’m still waiting for my knee to settle down as still experiencing swelling after a day on it (it was fine before I got Covid).
My consultant appears to be pretty decent and will be seeing him in a couple of weeks. He uses Don Joy braces so I’ll have a chat with him. (Getting to see my GP for a knee issue is a little difficult at the moment.

Many thanks for your information.