Kinematic analysis of the utility of functional knee bracing in restraining the anterior cruciate ligament deficient knee

Damage to the ACL is often treated with an external stabilizing device called a functional knee brace. However, the benefits of the functional knee brace are not well understood. Few knee models examine the injured knee, and fewer still examine its interaction with commonly prescribed orthopedic treatments. This thesis presents an investigation into the kinematics of the ACL deficient (ACLD) knee as well as the adjusted kinematics of the ACLD knee restrained with a functional knee brace. The purpose is to demonstrate the effectiveness of using a computer knee model to evaluate the design of a functional knee brace. Energy principle dynamics are used to construct a modular analytical simulation of knee motion. The simulation model predicts knee anterior tibial translation. The simulation model is adapted to represent the analytical approximation of a knee suffering total deficiency of the ACL. This simulation is coupled with a model of a functional knee brace to demonstrate the kinematics of the restrained ACL deficient knee. The restrained ACLD kinematics are compared to those of a normal (ACL-intact) knee. The results show that the knee model can be used to evaluate the effectiveness as well as analyze the design attributes of the functional knee brace.