Foot Pressure Feedback Pneumatic Orthosis: Implication of Daily Life Walking Training for Knee Osteoarthritis Patients
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International Journal of Precision Engineering and Manufacturing https://doi.org/10.1007/s12541-020-00397-7
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Foot Pressure Feedback Pneumatic Orthosis: Implication of Daily Life Walking Training for Knee Osteoarthritis Patients Jaewook Kim1 · Hyun Sik Moon2,3 · Song Joo Lee2 · Jong Min Lee2 · Shinsuk Park3 · Seung‑Jong Kim1 Received: 10 March 2020 / Revised: 20 July 2020 / Accepted: 27 July 2020 © Korean Society for Precision Engineering 2020
Abstract Patients with knee osteoarthritis (KOA) usually experience pain in the medial compartment of their knee which accompany varus postures. This causes much larger lateral-side foot pressure than that of the medial side which may lead to functional limitation in their daily life. Reducing knee loading during gait could help patients with KOA alleviate pain and improve walking functions. In this study, a prototype for a new pneumatic knee orthosis (PKO) is developed to support the knee by increasing the pneumatic pressure of the PKO during the stance period of walking using foot pressure feedback in real time. Force-sensing resistor sensors in the PKO were used to detect the gait phase and monitor the foot pressures in real time. To investigate the feasibility of the system, walking tests on a treadmill were performed at 2 km/h and 3 km/h by healthy subjects. The results show that the developed PKO can reduce lateral-side foot pressure during stance phase. The PKO in this study could be used as a research tool to investigate the relationship between foot pressure and knee loading as well as therapeutic purposes to reduce medial compartment loading in the knee. Keywords Knee osteoarthritis · Pneumatic knee orthosis · Walking training · Foot pressure
1 Introduction Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative disease associated with articular cartilage deterioration which can further lead to bone and ligament damage and joint pain. The most common form of OA presents in the knee, which is often elicited by repeated knee joint movements, muscle weakness, and obesity [1, 2]. Knee OA (KOA) affects more than one in three adults aged 50 years and older in Korea [3], with the number of patients increasing every year worldwide [4–6]. In many cases, patients with KOA are inflicted with pain when load is concentrated on the medial side of the knee causing narrowing of the joint gap. As a means of * Seung‑Jong Kim [email protected] 1
Department for Biomedical Engineering, Korea University College of Medicine, 73, Goryeodae‑ro, Seongbuk‑gu, Seoul 02841, Republic of Korea
2
Center for Bionics, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, 5, Hwarang‑ro 14‑gil, Seongbuk‑gu, Seoul 02792, Republic of Korea
3
School of Mechanical Engineering, Korea University, 145, Anam‑ro, Seongbuk‑gu, Seoul 02841, Republic of Korea
mitigation, an abnormal gait is often observed where the genu varum posture, bow-legged, is taken during the stance phase [7–10]. Such a posture results in again increasing lateral foot pressure and further exacerbating the condition by increasing the
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