Auto-accommodating therapeutic brace
OwnerDonald M. Coheninventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The current invention is an accommodating apparel or brace. It is intended to be convenient and comfortable. When the brace wearer is at rest, the brace exerts only modest forces against the body. When the brace wearer is active, the brace tightens and diverts load to protect the body part. The brace accommodation may include application of stronger fixation when activity begins and which persists as long as the activity does. It may also include application of forces around the body part to shift load away from the target part. The accommodation also includes relaxation of forces applied to the wearer when the wearer relaxes.
Claims7
A brace apparatus for at least partial unloading of an ankle joint of a leg of a person, wherein the ankle joint bears a compressive load during use, wherein the compressive load is substantially smaller when the ankle joint is at rest than when the ankle joint is active, comprising
- a collar positioned about the leg between an ankle and a knee of the person;
- an electronic sensor;
- a fixation bladder within the collar, responsive to input from the sensor, and configured to at least semi-automatically increase a fixation pressure of the collar about the leg;
- a brace structure configured to support a compressive load, and having (a) a proximal end attached to the collar, and (b) a distal end that is positioned to contact the ground beneath the ankle;
- and
- an unloading insole attached to the brace structure configured at least semi-automatically to transfer a portion of the compressive load from the joint to the brace structure when the joint bears the load.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.