Method for maintaining knee stability of a user suffering from damage of a knee ligament

Abstract

The present invention is a system for maintaining knee stability of a user suffering from damage of knee ligaments. It includes a sensor feedback system for measuring abnormal physical relationships between the tibia and femur. The sensor feedback system determines whether selected conditions have been met warranting the application of electrical stimulation and provides information regarding the determination to an electronic stimulator. Electrodes are spaceably mounted on selected portions of the user's hamstring and/or quadricep muscles in electrical communication with the electronic stimulator for causing contraction of the thigh muscles at selected levels, thus providing a posteriorly and/or anteriorly directed forces to the user's upper tibial bone and preventing its instability. The sensor feedback system preferably includes an upper elongated rigid member positionable adjacent the femur; a lower elongated rigid member hingedly connected on an end thereof to an end of the upper elongated rigid member; and a sensor mounted on the rigid members.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.