Design and simulation of an orthotic device for patients with osteoarthritis

Abstract

The first aim of this paper is the development of a virtual model of a new orthotic device, starting from an existent orthotic device, currently used in knee rehabilitation and from the virtual models developed for healthy knee joint and for the knee joint affected by osteoarthritis (OA) disease with varus inclination of 5°, 10°, 15°. The second aim consists in the obtaining of stress and displacements using numerical simulations for healthy knee joint, for knee joint affected by osteoarthritis (OA) and for orthotic device—OA knee assemblies. The Finite Element Method (FEM) is used to obtain the diagrams and the maximum values of von Mises stress and displacements for healthy knee, for the three studied cases of OA knee, orthotic devices-assemblies. These values are extracted and compared. Finally, an experimental study is provided in order to compare the range of motion and the amplitude of the flexion-extension knees of a five patients group with OA knees with and without orthosis, and to mark out the advantages of the proposed orthotic device.