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Knee manipulating device

Knee manipulating device description/claims

This invention is a medical device designed to improve the mobility of the adult knee following reconstructive surgery of the knee.

After major knee operations, principally total knee replacement, regaining knee mobility is of primary importance. Customarily, this is a rather prolonged process. A physiotherapist instructs the patient to bend and straighten his knee, and, ordinarily assists in this process manually. The foremost goal in this process is to gain full knee straightening (extension), as this is required for patients to walk properly. Of almost equivalent importance is regaining knee bending (flexion) as this is necessary to allow patients to ascend and descend steps, sit properly with the knee bent appropriately, and to rise from the sitting position.

There are many existing devices for carrying the knee through its range of motion which includes flexion and extension and which are primarily designed to increase muscle power and flexibility. These are commonly used in gyms and are not useful for patients recuperating from rehabilitative knee surgery as they are large, prohibitively expensive, and involve applying high levels of force to the knee.

There are also devices designed specifically for post-operative use to regain flexion and extension after reconstructive knee surgery. These are generally referred to as continuous passive motion machines (CPM) and are applied to the supine patient following surgery. These machines are expensive, provoke pain during use, and are heavy and not readily transportable. There are also devices as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,784,121 to Brooks that are patient controlled and designed to be used in a sitting position. The device of Brooks, however, does not fully straighten the knee. There remains a need for a device that overcomes these and other drawbacks of the prior art and provides an effective tool for mobilizing the post-operative knee after reconstructive surgery.

In one embodiment, a device for patient powered manipulation of the knee includes a seating platform to be positioned on a chair. A mounting bar is attached to the platform, this bar having a pivot axis. The location of the pivot axis is adjustable so that it conforms to the length of the patient's thigh. An angled bar is rotatably coupled to the mounting bar at the pivot axis, the angled bar having a hand grasp at its upper end and a leg contact pad at its lower end. The position of the leg contact pad is adjustable along the lower end of the angled bar to fit the length of the patient's leg, and a portion of the leg contact pad can rotate to roll along the patient's leg to reduce the friction effect on the patient's skin where the leg contact pad engages the leg. This device can be configured to accomplish both knee flexion (bending) and knee extension (straightening) depending on the position of the leg pad in front of or behind the shin, respectively. The patient pushes on the handle to accomplish knee flexion or pulls on the handle for knee extension. A thigh strap holds the thigh to the seating platform so that full knee extension is possible. These and other features and advantages of this invention will be displayed and become more readily apparent in the following accompanying drawings. Detailed description of the principles and features of this invention will follow.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of one embodiment of a knee manipulation device in accordance with the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of a component of the device shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 2A is an elevation view illustrating a range of motion of the component shown in FIG. 2.

FIG. 3 is a perspective detail view of a portion of the device of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a partial elevation view of the device of FIG. 1, illustrating adjustability of a mounting bar.

FIG. 5 is a partial perspective view of a leg pad of the device of FIG. 1.

FIG. 6 is an elevation view illustrating use of the device of FIG. 1 to extend (straighten) a leg.

FIG. 7 is an elevation view illustrating use of the device of FIG. 1 to flex (bend) a leg.

• Provisional Patent
• Utility Patent

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