There are a few different types of knee brace that can help you manage your knee osteoarthritis (OA). Below, we break down which one to choose depending on the severity and pattern of your OA.
Research shows that compression sleeves can relieve pain and improve function for OA patients [1], so it’s a good option to help manage your symptoms if you have mild OA. The warmth and compression it provides can reduce pain and stiffness and improve your sense of stability, especially during and after exercise. A sleeve will not provide as much support or pain relief as an offloader knee brace because it lacks a hinge, so for moderate to severe OA it probably won’t be very effective.
Reducing joint load is one of the preferred treatments for knee osteoarthritis. As a result, OA knee braces are designed to offload your knee by reducing or redistributing pressure in the joint. This protects the cartilage and decreases bone on bone contact, which helps to relieve pain and restore mobility.
There are three compartments of the knee where osteoarthritis can occur. OA can affect one compartment or multiple compartments at the same time. It’s important to understand which compartments of your knee are damaged because that will determine which type of offloader brace you need.
There are 2 main types of offloader braces:
Uni-compartment offloader – reduces pressure on one side of the knee by shifting weight to the other side
Tri-compartment offloader – reduces pressure across the entire knee, including under the knee cap, by absorbing body weight as the knee bends.
We have a couple of useful resources if you want to read in-depth about knee braces for osteoarthritis:
It depends on what pattern of OA you have. The best offloader knee brace for each pattern of OA is outlined below.
In this case, only one tibiofemoral compartment of the knee is damaged. A uni-compartment offloader brace shifts pressure away from the damaged compartment towards the healthy knee compartments. This provides relief from symptoms and can allow you to move more freely without experiencing painful bone on bone contact. Offloaders are a cost-effective and non-invasive way of reducing pain and improving functional ability [2,3].
The diagram above shows how an offloader brace alters knee alignment and the distribution of force in the joint. In this case, the brace is relieving pressure on the medial tibiofemoral compartment and shifting pressure to the lateral side of the knee.
Over half of knee OA cases involve the patellofemoral (PF) compartment [4] which is located under the knee cap. Conventional offloader braces can’t relieve pressure under the knee cap, so a tri-compartment offloader (TCO) is the best (and only) brace for PF OA. Using a powerful bionic hinge, a TCO brace absorbs body weight as the knee bends, reducing joint forces in the PF compartment by up to 46% [5]. This typically results in significant pain relief and improved mobility. If you have PF OA, a tri-compartment offloader can help you manage your symptoms and get back to your favourite activities.
In the diagram above, you can see how wearing a TCO knee brace can reduce the forces (represented by the arrows) acting on the PF compartment.
A tri-compartment offloader is also the best knee brace if you have OA in multiple compartments of your knee, which most OA patients do. That’s because it can offload all three knee compartments at once, reducing bone on bone contact and pain across the entire joint. The bionic hinge acts like a shock absorption system for your knee. Instead of redistributing body weight like an offloader brace, a TCO works against the force of gravity, absorbing a large amount of your body weight so your knee doesn’t have to. It also returns some of that energy to help power your leg muscles as you straighten your leg (a feature known as “knee extension assist”). Overall, a TCO is an excellent choice of brace if you’re struggling with any pattern of OA and want to reduce pain, regain mobility, and return to an active lifestyle.
Donjoy and Breg make some of the best uni-compartment offloader knee braces. Spring Loaded Technology’s Levitation knee brace is the world’s first tri-compartment offloader. For your convenience, we’ve made a resource comparing the Top 5 Offloader Knee Braces, which includes braces made by these brands. If you’re trying to decide which brace is best for you and want to see more detailed comparisons, the following resources might be helpful:
Spring Loaded’s Levitation knee brace is a tri-compartment offloader with a lightweight and compact design that’s already helped thousands of people overcome knee pain. Preliminary research findings show that wearing Levitation results in significant benefits for OA patients.
The following data is from a systematic survey of Levitation users with knee OA:
95% reported a significant decrease in pain symptoms after using the brace.
85% experienced mobility improvements.
86% reported an improvement in their quality of life.
On average, Levitation users were able to increase their physical activity levels by 8 hours per week.
You can learn more about the benefits of Levitation here.
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