US3454963A - Athletic brace - Google Patents

Description

H. C. PALLADINO ATHLETIC BRACE July 15, 1969 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed March 6, 1968 INVENTOR. HENRY PALLADINO ATTORNEY July 15, 1969 H. C. PALLADINO ATHLETIC BRACE Filed March 6, 1968 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR.

HENRY PALLAD 1 N0 BYB ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,454,963 ATHLETIC BRACE Henry C. Palladino, 666 E. 233rd St., Bronx, NY. 0466 Filed Mar. 6, 1968, Ser. No. 710,929 Int. Cl. A41d 13/06 US. Cl. 2-24 7 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A protective knee brace for wear by a participant in a body contact sport such as football. The knee brace comprises first and second spaced horizontal resilient tubular members adaptable to be circumferentially secured to the femur and tibial portions of the knee joint respectively. The horizontal members are interconnected by a plurality of vertical tubular members at spaced intervals along the lengths of the horizontal members, with the vertical members being made of material sufficiently resilient to allow substantially unimpeded flexure of the knee joint.

The present invention relates to an athletic body brace and more particularly to a protective leg brace suitable for wear by a participant in sports events involving recurrent and heavy body contact such as football.

Various sports such as football, involve recurrent and heavy body contact between the participants. Accordingly, in order to prevent or at least minimize, serious injury to the opposing contestants, various protective devices having been provided to protect various portions of the body. Such protective devices include a helmet having an attached face guard, shoulder pads, rigid athletic supporter and padded over-the-knee pants. It has been found however, that during football contests, the knee joint, which links the femur and tibial bones and pivotally supports about 80% of the body weight, has been highly vulnerable to injury, particularly as a result of impact inflicted on the tibial bone by a tackle or body block applied thereto by an opposing contestant, creating a large torque force on the knee ligaments. Ac cordingly, the knee ligaments are required to resist large torque as well as directly applied impact forces.

It is appreciated that in order to be practical, any protective device to be worn by a participant in an athletic contest should not unduly impede body movement thereat. Furthermore such a device should not present a hazard to an opposing contestant when he should come into bodily contact therewith.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a knee brace which is operative to protect the wearers knee from torque as well as direct impact forces.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a knee brace in accordance with the foregoing object which is sufliciently lightweight, compact and flexible to allow full and easy flexure of the knee such as during the course of running or jumping.

In accordance with the principles of the present invention there is provided a protective knee brace having first and second spaced horizontal members adaptable to be circumferentially secured to the femur and tibial portions of the knee joint respectively. There is further provided a plurality of vertical members interconnecting the first and second horizontal members at spaced intervals along the lengths of the horizontal members. The vertical members are made of material of sufficient resiliency to allow substantially impeded flexure of the knee joint.

The features of the invention which are believed to be novel are set forth with particularlity in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, both as to its organization and method of operation, together with further objects and features thereof may best be understood wtih reference to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a knee brace in the open condition, in accordance with the principles of the present invention in a preferred embodiment thereof.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a football player wearing the knee brace of FIG. 1, i.e., with the knee brace in the closed condition.

FIG. 3 is a horizontal sectional view of the knee brace of the present invention, in its closed condition, through the patella of the wearer, taken along the line 3-3 in FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is an elevational sectional view of the knee brace of FIG. 3 taken along the line 44.

FIG. 5 is a side elevational view of the knee brace of FIG. 3 showing the wearers knee and the knee brace in its flexed condition.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a leg brace constructed in accordance with the principles of the present invention in a second embodiment thereof, showing the leg brace in its open condition.

FIG. 7 is a front elevational view of the leg brace of FIG. 6 as typically worn slightly below the knee.

Referring to the drawings, FIG. 1 shows a knee brace 10 constructed in accordance with the principles of the present invention, in the open condition. Knee brace 10 is seen to comprise parallel flexible upper and lower tubing length support members 12 and 14 which are suitably secured to elastic wrap 16 on its inside surface 17 along the upper and lower edges thereof respectively, such as by stitching 18. Tubing length support members 12 and 14 are interconnected along spaced intervals thereof by flexible vertical tubing length connecting members 20, 22 and 24. Although the drawings depict horizontal tubing length members 12 and 14 being interconnected by three vertical tubing length members 20, 22 and 24, it is understood that the number and spacing of the vertical tubing lengths may vary in accordance with the degree of flexibility and strength required of knee brace 10.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, knee brace 10 is typically -worn by wrapping elastic wrap 16 around the knee joint 26 with inside wrap surface 17 applied directly onto knee joint 26 so that upper tube member 12 circumferentially engages the femur portion 28 of knee joint 26, and lower tube member 14 similarly circumferentially engages the tibial portion 30 of knee joint 26, whel the patella 32 is engaged by wrap inside surface 17 as best shown in FIG. 5.

It is understood that the spacing between upper and lower tube members 12 and 14 will vary with the size of the athletic participant for whom it is intended to be worn. By way of example, for an athletic participant of average build, upper and lower members 12 and 14 would be spaced approximately 8" apart, while vertical members 20 and 22 would be approximately 1" apart, and members 22 and 24 approximately 2 /2" apart.

As shown in FIG. 3, upper and lower members 12 and 14 will have a length dimension such that when knee brace 10 is tightly wrapped around the wearers knee joint 26, the opposite ends 14a and 14b of lower member 14 will be contiguous, as shown in FIG. 3, as will be opposite ends 12a and 12b of upper member 12. Elastic wrap 16 will have an overall length dimension suificient to facilitate the above engagement of opposite ends of members 12 and 14 respectively and to permit suitable fastening together of the opposite ends of wrap 16 so that knee brace 10 will fit securely around the wearers knee joint 26.

It is understood that various fastening devices may be employed to effect a snug and secure fit of knee brace 10 by means of wrap 16 as shown in FIG. 3. By wav of example, wrap 16 may be provided with a pair of strips of self gripping fastening fabric marketed under the trademark Velcro, whereby a releasable adhesive between matching fastening fabric strips is effected simply bv pressing together the two opposing matching Velcro strips and releasing the same by pulling the two opposing Velcro" strips apart with sufficient force. FIGS. 1 and 3 depict the use of such fastening means, wherein wrap 16 is provided with one fastener strip 34 secured, such as by sewing, to inside surface 17 of elastic wrap 16'at one end thereof, and a matching fastener strip 36 secured to the outside surface 19 of wrap 16 at the opposite end thereof. Accordingly, when knee brace is wrapped around the wearers knee joint 26, wrap 16 will overlap opposite end portions, which when pressed togetherjwill cause fastening strips 34 and 36 to grip together in secure engagement, to provide a sung fit of knee brace 10 about knee joint 26. It is understood that wrap 16 is made of suitable material which is sufiiciently elastic to allow the knee joint 26 to flex in the manner shown in FIG. 5.

The desired characteristics of the material used for tubing lengths 12, 14, 20, 22 and 24, are toughness, resiliency and lightweight. By way of example, suitable tubing for members 12, 14, 20, 22 and 24 may constitute a semi-pure gum rubber vacuum tubing having a /1." wall, bore and an overall diameter of 78", such as the type suitable for use with aspirator pumps and mechanical air pumps.

As shown in FIG. 5, although both horizontal members 12 and 14 as well as vertical members 20, 22, and 24 may be made of the above mentioned rubber tubing, vertical members 20, 22 and 24 will have a greater degree of flexibility to accommodate flexure of the knee joint 26 as shown in FIG. 5.

Although a slight amount of rotation of the tibia 30 in its long axis is permitted during fiexion, the principal axis of movement of the knee joint is in the transverse direction, thereby classifying the knee joint 26 as a hingejoint. It is well known that the tibial and femur muscles are substantially more massive and stronger than the knee ligaments, which functionally interconnect the two at the knee joint. Accordingly, if an impact torque force is applied to the tibia 30 in the lateral direction exemplified by arrows 38a and 38b, that torque force, instead of being resisted primarily by the knee ligaments, will have a substantial portion thereof transmitted to the femur muscles via vertical members 20, 22, and 24, which in conjunction with members 12 and 14 tend to absorb a substantial portion of this force because of their resilient nature, and hence to decelerate rotational movement of tibial portion 30 relative to femur portion 28. In this way, a substantial portion of the impact torque force applied to tibial portion 30 will be absorbed by the femur muscles which are more massive and stronger than the knee joint ligaments, and hence are more able to resist such relatively large impact torque forces commonly encountered by participants in athletic contests, such as football games.

It will be recognized that a sudden impact force applied to the leg at the positions and directions depicted by arrows 38b and 39 when the leg is in the erect condition, tend to cause the leg to buckle. However, the use of the knee brace 10 tends to reduce such a buckling effect by the action of vertical members 20, 22 and 24 in conjunction with horizontal members 12 and 14, which because of their resiliency tend to absorb a large portion of the inflicted impact force, to decelerate rotational movement of tibial portion 30 and to divert a large portion of the torque force from the knee ligaments to femur portion 28 which, as pointed out above, is better suited to absorb such impact force.

A further advantage provided by knee brace 10 resides in the fact that members 12, 14 as well as 20, 22 and 24 tend to absorb any impact force inflicted directly thereon, thereby providing a further degree of protection against impact injuries.

Referring to FIG. 6, in a further embodiment of the present invention there is provided a leg brace 40 which may be worn circumferentially secured to the tibia 30 in the manner shown in FIG. 7, in order to provide protection of the tibia against impact inflicted during athletic contests such as football games.

In'FIG. 6 leg brace 40 is shown in its open condition and is seen to comprise a flexible tubular member 42 having an elliptical shaped configuration and including a pair of tubular extensions 44 and 46 extending outwardly in opposite directions from member 42 along the direction of its major axis. By way of example, members 42,44 and 46 may comprise the same material as that of horizontal members 12 and 14 of knee brace 10. In a manner similar to knee brace 10, leg brace 40 may be suitably secured to an elastic wrap 48 such as by stitching 50, 'with wrap 48 being provided with Velcro type fastening strips 52 and 54 to effect a snug and secure fit of leg brace 40 in the manner depicted by FIG. 7. As in the case of knee brace 10, members 42, 44 and 46 are sized so that when brace 40 is wrapped around the tibia in a manner similar to that of brace 10, the opposite ends 44a and 46a of member 44 and 46 respectively will be contiguous.

What is claimed and desired to be secured by US. Letters Patent is:

1. A protective brace comprising first and second horizontal spaced members adaptable to be circumferentially secured to the femur and tibial portions of the knee joint respectively, at least one vertical member interconnecting said first and second horizontal members, said vertical members being made of material of sufficient resiliency to allow substantially unimpeded fiexure of the knee joint of the wearer.

2. A protective brace as defined in claim 1 wherein there is included a plurality of said vertical members interconnecting said first and second horizontal members at spaced intervals along the respective lengths of said horizontal members.

3. A protective brace as defined in claim 2 wherein said horizontal members are made of resilient material to allow fiexure of the femur and tibial muscles of the wearer.

4. A protective brace as defined in claim 3 wherein said vertical members comprise lengths of resilient tubing.

5. A protective brace as defined in claim 4 wherein said horizontal members comprise lengths of resilient tubing.

6. A protective brace as defined in claim 2 including an elastic wrap having said horizontal and vertical members secured to one surface of said wrap for circumferentially securing said one surface of said wrap to the knee joint of the wearer whereby said first and second members are circumferentially secured to the femur and tibial portions of the knee joint respectively.

7. A protective brace as defined in claim 6 wherein said wrap comprises an elongated sheet of elastic material having releasable self gripping fastening means at at least one end thereof to efiect secure engagement of said one surface of said wrap with the knee joint of the wearer.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 871,760 11/1907 Long 224 1,055,040 3/1913 Herron et a1. 224 2,652,565 9/1953 MacLellan 224 2,943,859 7/1960 Koski et al. 128-165 XR 3,338,028 8/1967 Freeman 128-165 XR JAMES R. BOLER, Primary Examiner

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