Tambu:
The lack of knee control may be due to quadriceps and or
hamstring insufficiency among the issues here. Is the person
hyperextending because of inability to walk with a flexed knee
requiring quadriceps muscle activation or is the person unable to
control the extension forces due to the quadriceps? I have seen
both situations in the clinic here.
A long-standing solution to quadriceps muscle weakness in neurological disorders
has been to use an ankle foot orthosis because it assists the
quadriceps. This solution would not work if the problem was
related to knee flexors.
Bracing the knee to prevent hyper extension would be a reasonable
solution for a hamsting muscle problem but probably would not
work if the problem were related to quadriceps.
Murray
>
>
>
> I wonder if anyone could help me out.
> I have a lady in her 60s suffered form polio. Now walks with one crutch and
> badly hyperextends on both knees (more than 20deg.) when standing and walking.
> She has been advised to go into a brace for the particularly bad knee.. One
> Donjoy that she got in South Africa was had bar across the thigh and across the
> upper leg which gave her foot drop from pressure on the nerve. Here in Zimbabwe
> there is virtually zero choice for braces, but she is travelling to US and
> wanted a recommendation for what brace to get.
> She needs super light brace and one that stops her from hyperextending. Anyone
> with experience with this kind of problem or has any suggestion, brand names of
> braces or if custom made braces are a choice, very light, minimum presure...etc,
> or email address of companies that make these braces (or calipers) in the
> US........would be very grateful for any kind of advice..........
> Thanks in advance
> Tambu Masaya
>
--
________________________________________________________________
Murray Maitland PhD PT
Associate Professor and Physical Therapist
Faculty of Kinesiology
Sport Medicine Centre
University of Calgary
2500 University Drive NW
Calgary, Alberta
T2N 1N4
(403) 220-8943 office
(403) 220-8232 clinic
(403) 282-6170 fax
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