Fracture brace

US4320748A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• Orthomedics, Inc. · US

Inventors

• Walter L. Racette · La Habra, US
• David L. Porter · Westland, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Nov 20, 1980
• Grant date: Mar 23, 1982
• Expiry date: Nov 20, 2000

Classification

• Technology area (CPC Y): Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
• CPC primary: Y10S128/15
• WIPO field: Medical technology
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

A fracture brace for a leg has an interior jacket for placement over the front of a leg, and for wrapping around the medial and lateral sides of a leg outside of a posterior shell. The posterior shell fits over the calf and the lateral and medial sides of the leg. Straps anchored on the shell unite the jacket and the shell to form an enveloping case for the leg that permits transmission of bearing pressures through the fleshy part of the leg, the tibia, and the brace. An interior pad integral with the jacket extends along the anterior of a leg from the proximal tibia to the distal tibia. There the pad wraps to the sides to provide padding for the bony prominences of the medial and lateral malleolus. A footplate connects to the jacket through a pair of uprights, each of which attaches to the footplate through a pivot and to the jacket by hook and pile fasteners. The attachment to the jacket permits adjustment of the footplate with respect to the jacket and therefore the foot with respect to the tibia: (1) in translation generally along the axis of the tibia, (2) in translation generally along an axis through the length of the foot, (3) in rotation generally around the axis of the ti…