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Knee braces have found their applications in a wide range of problems and illnesses. Functional knee braces are designed to replace damaged ligaments. For instance, a patient who has an ACL tear can be offered to wear a knee brace to allow certain activities to be performed without surgery. Prophylactic knee braces are used to prevent injury to the knee. Prophylactic knee braces are worn by sportspeople who engage in some high-risk sports to reduce their risk of a knee injury.

What are knee braces?

Knee braces are medical supports used to prohibit knee injury during sports activities and to reduce pain because of medical conditions like tendonitis, osteoarthritis, and other injuries. Athletes or any patients suffering from arthritis as well as other knee injuries, use knee braces to get rid of the pain.

Knee braces support the joints of the knee to prevent injuries. These are used for rapid recovery after surgery and for knee joint therapy. Knee braces are made from a combination of plastic, metal, straps, foam, and elastic materials. These braces are available in different sizes, designs, and colors.

How do knee braces help in maintaining health?

Some warm-up exercises before a low-impact exercise can include a knee brace to prevent injury. A simple exercise like standing up where you walk up and down a set of steps to warm up your heart and leg muscles would be a bit easier if you do it while wearing a knee brace.

An effective knee brace is often important to keep the leg muscles and ligaments in good shape. However, if you don't wear the right shoes, you may be doing more harm. A knee brace will also help in improving an individual's posture. It may not be apparent at first, but knee pain can affect the posture in ways that can damage the backs. Ideally, the head has to be balanced over shoulders, while hands are centered over the abdomen and pelvis.

Some of the most prominent knee braces applications:

Arthritis

Osteoarthritis is a chronic disorder that affects the entire joint. It is mainly known as a form of wear-and-tear arthritis that usually causes a problem to the knees of older people. The condition often affects one side of a patient's knee compared to the other one. This uneven damage will cause the knee to align (malalignment) imperfectly, which can make a person look knock-kneed or bow-legged.

No matter what type of arthritis a patient has, whether it is inflammatory or degenerative (OA), the knees are likely to be affected at some point. Assistive devices, such as knee braces, can help ease discomfort and prevent medication-free mobility.  Arthritis knee braces are suitable for alleviating osteoarthritis knee pain as well as other knee symptoms. They also help with knee stabilization when walking and help promote patient mobility.

Ligament

The knee is the highest joint in the body and one of the most complicated ones too. The knee is important for the movement of your body. Sprains or tears in the ligaments of the knee are most common in athletes. Initially, when an athlete ripped a knee ligament, it would be the end of their career; many athletes are now able to return to their sport even after a knee ligament injury.

Knee braces vendors provide a range of knee ligament braces that can assist with the recovery process. Wearing ligament knee braces can help prevent damage to the Anterior Cruciate Ligament or help support the knee after an ACL tear or injury. A brace specifically designed to protect your ACL decreases the amount of time the ACL is in an "at-risk" position for tearing. Ligament knee braces are lightweight and sturdy, designed to keep an athlete in the game.

Sports

Sports knee braces offer effective protection from excessive strain. Owing to gentle compression, the Sports knee support increases the capacity of the knee to control movement at the time of longer sporting activities. At the same time, the hard-wearing knee massages the tendons, ligaments, muscles and connective tissue, which in turn has a beneficial effect on the sensorimotor system. It combats the possibility of strain and injury, which means that the pain associated with prolonged pressure disappears more easily.

In comparison to the sleeves, knee braces consist of one or two bars with hinges on the sides of the knee and straps to keep it in place. Although various kinds of hinged braces are available, they are all designed to improve stability by supporting the ligaments inside or outside the knee. Prophylactic knee braces have been designed to prevent damage in contact sports. Although these are widely worn and may lower the risk of injury among a certain subset of athletes (for example, football liners), it is not yet clear whether they are cost-effective or applicable to other categories of sports.

Industry insights

Mar-2018: DonJoy, a brand of DJO Global, introduced the X4 Smart Brace. It is the first knee brace for complete knee arthroplasty. The brace tracks patient compliance and recovery in real-time. The X4 Smart Brace, equipped with motion intelligence, is a cloud-based system.

Jun-2018: Ossur launched the Össur Formfit® Pro line of 3D compressive knit solutions. This product range offers knit solutions for knees, ankles, elbows, wrists, etc. The Pro line was designed for people with different types of musculoskeletal disorders and conditions.

Feb-2019: Breg, a subsidiary of Orthofix, launched Breg Quantum™ OA. It is the company's next-generation unloader knee brace for mild to severe osteoarthritis. This brace meets the needs of orthopedic surgeons looking for pain-relieving osteoarthritis brace that their patients can wear.

Nov-2019: Otto Bock Healthcare introduced Agilium® Vantage, a low-profile, wrap-around knee brace product. This brace is crafted to provide long-term pain relief for patients with mild unicompartmental osteoarthritis (OA). The Agilium Vantage is now available for order in three sizes, enabling practitioners to minimize inventory and save on costs.

To conclude

The knee braces market is witnessing a significant rise in the worldwide market space due to various recently established estimated. To begin with, the World Health Organization estimated that more than 20% of the world’s population over 60 years of age, accounting for around 130 million people, will suffer from osteoarthritis by 2050.

Free Valuable Insights: Global Knee Braces Market to reach a market size of USD 1.9 billion by 2025

The health and wider social costs of musculoskeletal conditions are substantial. Expenditure on musculoskeletal conditions is difficult to measure due to a wide range of musculoskeletal conditions and limits in health surveillance systems. Orthopedic surgical procedures, such as complete joint replacement, account for one of the highest hospital costs.