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THE GENUX 2 – UNLOADING

What does unloading mean?

The GENUX 2 is designed to unload the affected side of the knee. Unloading means the reduction of the loading forces inside the knee at one

side of the knee.

In cases of osteoarthritis, usually one side of the knee is more affected than the other. At the most affected side more cartilage is damaged

and/or gone. The knee drops that way which makes this part more heavily loaded, leading to an increase of the associated problems. To prevent

worsening of instability, that side of the knee must be unloaded. This usually leads to a rapid reduction of complaints.

The pain is often aggravated by the occurrence of inflammatory reactions on the affected compartment. The loading levels on the inflamed

cartilage of the compartment need to drops below a certain level in order to be able to reduce the inflammatory reaction. Unloading of the

affected side of the knee (by the GENUX 2 knee orthosis) can therefore create a favourable condition to start the reduction of inflammatory

responses. This can also have a positive effect on reducing pain. This effect is noticeable only after a few days.

How does the GENUX 2 unload

The GENUX 2 unloads the knee by (partly) pushing the leg back into its neutral alignment. The frame of the brace is shaped to your leg in a

manner that it doesn't allow for the knee to move outwards (in case of varus instability) or inwards (in case of valgus instability). When you

extend your leg with the GENUX 2 on, the frame of the brace straightens your

leg (in a frontal view). It is strong and rigid enough to create the necessary

moments of force to do that.

With your leg straightened the drop of your knee to the affected side is

counteracted. As a result the crevice in your knee on that side will open up

leading to a reduction of the forces on that side. This is called unloading.

Quite often it is sufficient to just partly realign the leg back to neutral. A full

correction of the leg would require considerable forces of the brace to the leg,

making it uncomfortable to wear, whereas the loading on the affected side will

drop to zero as soon as a crevice is created. A larger crevice (more correction)

does not reduce the loading on the affected side, but does increase the loading

of the brace to the leg. Therefore we try and correct as much as possible, but

not too much.

THE GENUX 2 – LONG LEVER ARMS & LIGHT WEIGHT

The GENUX 2 is a relatively long brace, compared to a lot of other knee

braces on the market. We do that to keep the brace light weight and

comfortable. It does sound a little contradictory, but actually it's just plain

mechanics. A long brace has long lever-arms. With a long lever arm you can

create higher moments of force with lower forces. That means that by exerting lower forces from the brace on the leg we create higher

moments of force around the knee. These moments of force are what the brace actually needs to deliver to make it work.

The lower forces of the brace on the leg make it more comfortable, but also allow us to optimize the weight of the brace without compromising

the rigidity of the structure of the brace. So, in short: it works better and is more comfortable because it's longer.

User information | +31 (0)53 4302 836 | [email protected] | www.ambroise.nl

GENUX.2023.01

Figure 2: Schematic principle of unloading. In the left image the left side of

the joint shows degeneration, leading to pain and misalignment. By adding a

4 point force system in the right image, the joint is pushed back into neutral

alignment, leading to an opening up of the joint on the affected side.