JP2005185629A - Joint supporter - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a joint supporter capable of effectively reducing pain accompanying the twisting rotation of a knee joint when a person changes the posture from standing to sitting posture or from sitting to standing posture, or when walking. <P>SOLUTION: The joint supporter is made of a knit fabric with a function of permitting elasticity in the cross direction but limiting elasticity in the longitudinal direction, which is formed as a cylindrical body. The longitudinal direction of the knit fabric is biased to the longitudinal direction of the cylindrical body, and fiber with high tensile rigidity is knitted especially along the longitudinal direction of the knit fabric. It is further preferable that fiber with high rubber-like elasticity is knitted along the cross direction of the knit fabric. An opening slit at right angles to the longitudinal direction is formed at the center of the cylindrical body, and it is desirable that the number of stitches in the cross direction is larger on one side of the slit as the border than the number of stitches in the cross direction on the other side. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention can be easily attached to a wearer's joint by suppressing abnormal rotation of the joint and assisting normal rotation by being attached to a part having a flexion / extension disorder such as a knee joint or an elbow joint. The present invention relates to a joint supporter that can bend and stretch.

Movement disorders such as knee joints are often caused by degenerative knee joint inflammation, arthritis, meniscus injury, rheumatism, etc., but when a biased load is applied to joints with these disorders, pain is added to the affected area. Cause tremendous pain. In such a case, a method has been adopted in which the joint part is pressed and restrained by a joint supporter to suppress the movement of the joint and alleviate the occurrence of pain. As a joint supporter for fixing the joint part for such a purpose, for example, as shown in FIG. 8, an opening 2 is formed which is formed of a knitted fabric 1 knitted with rubber thread and exposes the kneecap part. In addition to the knee joint supporter A, various types of structures have been proposed.
JP 7-148199 A JP 2001-79026 A JP 2002-191629 A JP 2003-88544 A JP 2003-227014 A

  However, when a patient with a disability in the knee joint or the like maintains a certain posture, for example, when standing or sitting, there is no particular problem, but from a standing posture to a sitting posture, or from a sitting posture to a standing posture. In the case of moving to a knee joint, the torsional rotation called the screw home movement occurs in the knee joint, and the toes rotate inward when sitting, and outward when standing. Pain occurs when you cannot move. In addition, since the twisting and turning of the knee joint also occurs during walking, it is a burden for the patient to bend and stretch the knee joint. However, these conventional joint supporters are accompanied by the above knee flexion and stretching. The effect of suppressing distress was poor.

  Therefore, the present invention suppresses the twisting rotation when the knee joint is extended and the return rotation when the knee joint is bent in order to reduce the pain of the wearer caused by the twisting rotation of the knee joint. Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a joint supporter having a reversible braking function that restricts the unstable rotation of the knee joint by limiting the occurrence of rotation in the opposite direction.

  In order to achieve the above object, the joint supporter of the present invention forms a tubular body using a knitted fabric having a function of being stretchable in the lateral direction but limited in the longitudinal direction. Thus, the longitudinal direction of the knitted fabric is configured to be biased with respect to the length direction of the cylindrical body.

  In the joint supporter of the present invention, by stretching the fibers having high tensile rigidity along the longitudinal direction of the knitted fabric, the elongation in the longitudinal direction can be effectively limited, and the knitting is also performed. By braiding fibers with high rubber elasticity along the lateral direction of the cloth, it can be worn so as to be in close contact with the joint part, and the function as a joint supporter can be exhibited.

  Further, in the joint supporter of the present invention, with the approximate center position of the cylindrical body as a boundary, the number of lateral stitches on one side thereof is configured to be larger than the number of lateral stitches on the other side. There is an advantage that a feeling of wearing is improved by fitting one side to the lower leg and fitting the other side to the upper shin part without difficulty.

  Further, in the joint supporter of the present invention, an opening slit is provided at a substantially central position of the cylindrical body at a substantially right angle with respect to the length direction. In particular, the opening slit is provided so as to substantially circulate the cylindrical body. As a result, it is possible to obtain an effect that the front surface of the knee head is exposed and the joint portion is not compressed more than necessary, and the bending motion of the joint is not inhibited.

  The joint supporter of the present invention is formed of a tubular body using a knitted fabric having a function that is stretchable in the lateral direction but limited in the longitudinal direction, and the longitudinal direction of the knitted fabric is Is configured to be biased with respect to the length direction of the cylindrical body. Therefore, the joint supporter having such a configuration exhibits the same characteristics as when a towel or a cloth is squeezed, for example, and it cannot be squeezed even if it is squeezed more strongly, but it can be easily loosened in the opposite direction. It has. Therefore, when the joint supporter of the present invention is attached to the joint part, when the torsional force applied to the joint acts in the direction of stretching the knitted fabric of the joint supporter in the longitudinal direction, the joint supporter cannot extend and the length Compressive stress from the direction also works and resists knee rotation. Conversely, when the torsional force applied to the joint acts in the direction of stretching the knitted fabric of the joint supporter in the lateral direction, the spacing between the knitted fabric is widened, the joint portion is loosened, and the joint can be easily rotated. Thus, the joint can bend and extended without feeling pain.

  Therefore, when the knee arthritis patient or the like stands up from the chair or walks, the joint supporter of the present invention is made of the knitted fabric in order to lighten the burden of the movement of the foot tip abduction when the knee extends. It is appropriate to wear so that the vertical direction goes from the outside of the thigh to the inside of the shin and to the inside. Also, in the case of knee osteoarthritis patients and the like, contrary to the above, since the movement of the toes inversion occurs when the knees are stretched, if the joint supporter of the present invention is turned over and worn, The burden of suitable operation can be reduced.

  Furthermore, in the joint supporter of the present invention, an opening slit is provided at a substantially central position at a substantially right angle with respect to the length direction. This is when reversibly braking the torsional force applied to the joint. The knee joint is not excessively tightened, and when opening the knee joint, the opening slit opens and the kneecap appears, which is effective in reducing the stress caused by pressure when the joint is bent. Is particularly effective.

Hereinafter, the joint supporter of the present invention will be described in detail based on examples shown in the drawings.
FIG. 1 is an external view for explaining the mounting state of the joint supporter of the present invention. The oblique knitted fabric 3 used for forming the joint supporter B of the present invention has a special tissue structure. Other than that, a general external shape such as an opening 2 through which the knee joint can be exposed is similar to a conventionally known joint supporter and is not greatly different.

  FIG. 2 shows a configuration of the oblique knitted fabric 3 forming the joint supporter B of the present invention. The stitch structure of the oblique knitted fabric 3 is not particularly limited, but a knitting method having a structure that is less stretched when pulled in the vertical direction and easier to stretch and contract when pulled in the horizontal direction, such as rubber knitting. Further, a knitted fabric by rib knitting, flat knitting, garter knitting or the like is preferable. Among them, rubber knitting is particularly preferable, but long fibers having a high tensile rigidity and a low elongation can be obtained by using cotton yarn as a knitting yarn, and by knitting the rubber yarn together to increase the shrinkage in the lateral direction. A knitted fabric in which yarn or the like is knitted along the longitudinal stitches can be particularly suitably used for the joint supporter of the present invention.

  The oblique knitted fabric 3 as described above needs to have a biased start edge 3a formed in the direction in which the stitches are knitted, that is, in the lateral direction. However, the oblique knitted fabric 3 may be knitted so that the starting edge 3a is formed in a bias shape from the beginning of knitting. However, a long knitted fabric knitted in advance is biased with both upper and lower edges parallel. It is also possible to form a parallelogram-shaped knitted fabric by cutting so as to form a shape, and to form the start end edge 3a and the end end edge 3b by bending the cut end edges. Finally, as shown in FIG. 3, the left and right vertical edges of the obtained parallelogram-shaped oblique knitted fabric 3 are brought into contact with each other, and are bound together to form an annular start end. A cylindrical body having a twisted structure having an edge 3a and an annular terminal end edge 3b, that is, a basic joint support structure of the present invention is formed.

  Furthermore, since the joint supporter of the present invention is composed of the oblique knitted fabric 3 with little stretch in the longitudinal direction of the stitches, when the joint part to which the joint supporter is to be bent is to be bent, the part corresponding to the outside of the joint is difficult to stretch. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 4, a lateral opening slit 2 a is provided at a portion of the joint supporter that contacts the kneecap, for example, and when the joint is bent, the opening slit 2 a is opened to temporarily form the opening 2. In this way, the bending and stretching of the joint is not hindered. For example, as shown in FIG. 5, the opening slit 2a may be formed when the oblique knitted fabric 3 is knitted, or the parallelogram-shaped oblique knitted fabric 3 may be formed from the knitted long knitted fabric. When forming, an opening slit 2a having a structure similar to a horizontally long button hole may be formed by cutting a slit parallel to the start edge 3a and bending the periphery of the slit. The opening slit 2a may be formed in the same manner as described above with respect to the joint supporter structure formed by use.

  When the joint supporter of the present invention is used for a knee joint, the upper half is attached to the thigh and the lower half is attached to the shin. Therefore, the thigh part generally thicker than the shin part is strongly tightened by the joint supporter, and the feeling of wearing tends to be impaired. Therefore, since it is desirable to form the thighs of the joint supporter thickly so that they can be worn comfortably, the number of stitches in the upper half of the oblique knitted fabric 3 is set to be larger than the number of stitches in the lower half. It is also important to keep the length of the rubber yarn knitted in the upper half of the oblique knitted fabric 3 longer. Therefore, when knitting the oblique knitted fabric 3 having such a structure, for example, as shown in FIG. 6, the opening slit 2a is formed on the right side of the center position from above and below during the knitting, and the opening slit 2a An example of the oblique knitted fabric 3 ′ in which the number of upper knitting stitches is set to be about 10 to 20% larger than the number of lower knitting stitches, and the upper vertical length and the lower vertical length are substantially the same can be given. However, it is desirable to adjust the number of stitches and the vertical length in this example as appropriate based on the body shape of the wearer.

  The oblique knitted fabric 3 'knitted as described above has a smaller number of lower stitches and a larger number of upper stitches across the opening slit 2a, so that the end length is longer than the lateral length of the starting edge 3a. The lateral length of the edge 3b is long. And the right end is at the left end of the starting edge 3a, the lower edge right edge and the upper edge right edge of the opening slit 2a are at the center position of the left edge of the diagonal knitted fabric 3 ', and further at the left edge of the end edge 3b. The left side edge and the right side edge of the oblique knitted fabric 3 ′ are bound together so that the right ends are connected to each other. In this way, the cylindrical body constituting the joint supporter C of the present invention having the form as shown in FIG. 7 is obtained, which is in a state where it is folded at the positions of the broken lines X, Y, and Z in FIG. It is shown in a plan view. It will be easily understood that when the joint supporter C of the present invention is turned upside down and attached to the wearer's knee, the same appearance as the joint supporter B of FIG.

  The joint supporter of the present invention is limited in elongation in the longitudinal direction of the stitch, and uses a knitted fabric that is stretchable in the lateral direction so that the direction of the stitch becomes a bias with respect to the length direction of the supporter. When a patient with a disorder such as knee arthritis wears it, the longitudinal direction of the stitches turns from the outside of the thigh to the inside of the shin and from the inside of the thigh. When worn so as to turn to the outside of the shin around the rear side, it is possible to reduce the knee load caused by the screw home movement when walking. In addition, patients with knee arthritis with O-legs and patients with osteoarthritis of the knee cause reverse screw home movement, so it is possible to reduce the knee load by wearing the left and right sides upside down or wearing them upside down. It is valid.

  Furthermore, the joint supporter according to the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned patients with specific joint disorders, but also excessively restricts joint flexion and extension not only for patients with sports joint disorders or rheumatic disorders. There is an advantage that can be used corresponding to various situations.

It is an external appearance perspective view at the time of wearing of the example of the joint supporter of the present invention. It is a top view of the example of the parallelogram diagonal knitted fabric which is a constituent material of the joint supporter of this invention. It is explanatory drawing of the condition which binds a parallelogram diagonal knitted fabric and makes it a joint supporter. It is a perspective view of the example of the supporter for joints provided with the opening slit. It is a top view of the example of the diagonal knitted fabric which is a constituent material of the joint supporter of FIG. It is a top view of the example of the diagonal knitted fabric which is a constituent material of the joint supporter from which thickness differs by the upper and lower sides of a joint. It is a top view of the folded state of the joint supporter which bound the oblique knitted fabric of the example of FIG. It is an external appearance perspective view at the time of wearing of the example of the supporter for joints knitted by the prior art.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Knitted fabric 2 Opening part 3 Oblique knitted fabric 3a Starting edge 3b End terminal edge 2a Opening slit 3 'Oblique knit

Claims (6)

  A tubular body is formed using a knitted fabric having a function of being stretchable in the lateral direction but limited in the longitudinal direction, and the longitudinal direction of the knitted fabric is the length of the tubular body. A joint supporter that is configured to be biased with respect to a direction.   The joint supporter according to claim 1, wherein fibers having high tensile rigidity are knitted along the longitudinal direction of the knitted fabric.   The joint supporter according to claim 1, wherein fibers having high rubber-like elasticity are knitted along a lateral direction of the knitted fabric.   4. The structure according to claim 1, wherein the number of lateral stitches on one side of the cylindrical body is set to be larger than the number of lateral stitches on the other side, with a substantially central position as a boundary. The joint supporter according to any one of the above.   The joint supporter according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein an opening slit is provided at a substantially central position of the cylindrical body at a substantially right angle to the length direction.   6. The joint supporter according to claim 5, wherein the opening slit is provided so as to substantially circulate the cylindrical body.

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