Walking Support Mechanical Orthosis with a Bone Rotation Function

Knee osteoarthritis(Knee-OA) is a disease caused by age-related muscle weakness, obesity, or sport injury. One of the characteristics of knee-OA is rotation dyskinesia of the knee joint due to the degeneration of the system around the knee. In the present study, we focused on the rotation of the tibia relative to the movement of the ankle joint during walking, and we developed a mechanical orthosis, which induces rotation of the lower leg in conjunction with the movement of the ankle joint. We verified the effectiveness of the developed orthosis by measuring the amount of lower leg rotation and bone behavior while three subjects wearing medial wedge for imitating knee-OA patient performed walking motion.