| dc.description.abstract | Injuries to the knee are complex due to the dynamic structures that stabilize the joint to provide stability and movement for active daily living. It has been stated that 30% of patients in the sports medicine clinics are seen for patellofemoral pain (Kowall, Kolk, Nuber, Cassi, & Stem, 1996). The high incidence of patellofemoral pain has inspired physicians to find the most ideal treatment to reduce the pain in these individuals, specifically to correct maltracking of the patella. Due to the dynamic structure of this joint, it has been a challenging task to find an effective treatment. The Breg� Patellar Tracking Orthosis was designed to help stabilize the patellofemoral joint with the intention of limiting the incidence of pain suffered by individuals with this affliction. Positive finding from this investigation could potentially shed light on conservatively treating patients with a chronic history of patellofemoral pain, and provide an avenue of immediate pain relief. This study proposed to determine the effectiveness of the Breg� Patellar Tracking Orthosis on patellar maltracking, which is a directly related to patellofemoraJ pain (Powers et aL, 1999). The study was designed to determine if the Breg~ Patellar Tracking Orthosis brace would decrease the likelihood of patellar maltracking, due to the reinforcement and re-alignment of the patella throughollt knee nexion and extension. The independent variables, the Lysholms II and Knee Orthopedic Outcome Score were the subjective tests that measured the dependent variables through the pre, mid and post time-frames over the five week experimental period. | |
