A biomechanical study of the static stabilizing effect of knee braces on medial stability

The purpose of this project was to determine if com mercially available braces could be shown to produce objective evidence of medial stabilization of the knee. Commercially available athletic braces were evaluated for their effect on abduction forces applied to a cadaver knee with no instability and with experimentally created medial instability. Under computer control, abduction forces were applied while simultaneous data were ob tained from an electrogoniometer and transducers ap plied to the anterior cruciate ligament and the superficial medial collateral ligament at 0°, 15°, and 30° of flexion. Our results showed a reduction in abduction angle using functional braces, whereas prophylactic braces demonstrated little or no protective effect.