Customized Cane System with Adjustable Rocker Bottom for Knee Osteoarthritis
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current walking assistance devices, such as canes, are underutilized and improperly used by patients with knee osteoarthritis due to psychosocial barriers, improper technique, and aesthetic concerns, leading to suboptimal benefits in reducing knee joint reactive forces and pain.
Innovation Solution
A customizable cane system with adjustable rocker bottom foot profile, shaft length, shaft angle, and return spring force configurations is designed to minimize the knee adduction moment, monitored and optimized for each patient to enhance comfort, ease of use, and aesthetic appeal, encouraging consistent and proper use.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If a cane is used to reduce knee joint reactive forces, then knee pain and mechanical load are decreased, but psychosocial pressure and improper technique lead to low prevalence and suboptimal use
Solution Approach 1:
The cane system automatically monitors knee adduction moment through integrated sensors and provides real-time feedback to the user, enabling self-correction of technique without requiring external supervision or complex manual adjustments by the patient
Solution Approach 2:
The system incorporates sensors that continuously measure knee adduction moment and provide feedback to the user through displays or alerts, allowing real-time adjustment of cane usage technique to optimize therapeutic benefits while reducing knee joint reactive forces
2Object-affected harmful factors
If a cane system is customized to minimize knee adduction moment, then biomechanical benefits are optimized, but device complexity and number of adjustable parameters increase
Solution Approach 1:
The cane system features dynamically adjustable parameters including shaft length, shaft angle, rocker bottom foot profile, and return spring force that can be modified based on patient-specific biomechanical measurements and rehabilitation progress, allowing optimization of knee adduction moment while maintaining manageable complexity through systematic adjustment protocols
3Object-affected harmful factors
If multiple assembly configurations are monitored and adjusted, then optimal knee adduction moment is achieved, but time and measurement requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary biomechanical assessments and pre-configures optimal assembly settings before patient use, reducing the time required during actual rehabilitation sessions while still achieving optimized knee adduction moment through pre-calibrated shaft lengths, angles, and spring forces
Solution Approach 2:
The system replaces complex manual measurement and adjustment procedures with automated electronic sensors and digital monitoring that continuously track knee adduction moment, reducing the time and expertise required for precise biomechanical optimization
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The customized cane system effectively reduces knee adduction moment, decreases pain, increases function, and promotes faster walking speeds, thereby providing biomechanical and clinical benefits while encouraging consistent use and potentially delaying the need for knee replacement surgery.
Implementation Method 1
a return spring positioned in the connecting structure between the rocker bottom foot and the handled shaft
Data Source
AI summary
Walking assistance devices and systems for rehabilitation system for reducing the knee adduction moment in a user, reducing stress on the knee, and potentially slowing deterioration of the knee associated with osteoarthritis of the knee and delaying the need for knee replacement surgery. In one embodiment the walking assistance device includes a handle or grip portion, a shaft portion, and a base portion having a rocker bottom which reduces the knee adduction moment on the stance leg of a user.