Knee orthosis with hinged shin and thigh cuffs

摘要

A disclosed knee orthosis has two vertical struts positioned on opposed sides of a knee joint in a generally parallel relationship. Each vertical strut has a hinge member located at a general middle portion; each vertical strut has a top and bottom end portion. An upper thigh cuff attaches at opposed ends to the upper end portions of the two vertical struts whereas a lower shin cuff attaches at opposed ends to the lower end portions. The lower shin cuff has a pair of hinges located proximal to the shin cuff opposed ends for permitting the shin cuff to pivot downwardly away from a shin of a person wearing the knee orthosis. An alternate embodiment employs hinges located proximal to the thigh cuff opposed ends for permitting the thigh cuff to pivot upwardly away from a thigh of a person when the same motion is performed.

主权项

1. A knee orthosis device comprising:
a) two vertical struts, adapted to be positioned on opposed sides of a knee joint in a generally parallel relationship, each of the vertical struts having a hinge member, each of the vertical struts having a proximal section and a distal section, the proximal section having a proximal end, the distal section having a distal end; b) an upper thigh cuff attached at opposed ends to the proximal ends of each of the vertical struts: c) a lower shin cuff attached at opposed ends to the distal ends of each of the vertical struts; and d) a first swing assist assembly containing at least one tensile member located on one of the two vertical strut hinge members, a first end of the tensile member connected to the proximal half of the one of the two vertical struts, a second end of the tensile member connected to the distal half of the same vertical strut, the first swing assist assembly acting to straighten one of the two vertical struts; e) wherein the at least one tensile member is an elastic loop without terminations, the elastic loop adapted to store and release energy created by a user's gait.