You may find you need to wear a brace after your knee surgery.
In the below videos you can see how a brace is fitted by your physiotherapist. The videos also explain how you can adjust your knee brace and how to look after it.
Wearing a brace after surgery
Wearing a brace after surgery
Hi, my name is Kimberly, and I’m one of the physiotherapists that work on the orthopedic unit at Chapel Allerton Hospital. It might be that the surgeons require you to wear a brace after your surgery. We’ll go through how to adjust this once you have come out of theatre and we fit the brace for you.
If the brace is required, it will need to be worn at all times. The length of time you’ll need to wear it will depend on the structures that have been repaired. We recommend that you do not touch the dials on the brace, but you will need to adjust it once your dressings have come down and as swelling changes.
If your surgeon requires you to have a brace on your knee after your surgery, we will fit it for you in recovery when you come out of theatre. You’ll have a big, bulky dressing on your knee, which generally comes down 48 hours after your operation. You may find that you need to adjust the tightness of your brace.
Always ensure the dials are in line with your knee joint. You should not need to touch anything on these dials, as they will be set for you. Your brace needs to be worn at all times, even when sleeping, to protect the healing of the structures that have had surgery.
We recommend that you have a strip wash rather than removing the brace to go into the shower. To do a strip wash, simply press on the clasp to release the brace.
When your bandages come off or your swelling changes, you will need to adjust how tight or loose your straps are. To do this, pull up on the Velcro to tighten the brace, or pull across to loosen it, then relax it off and pull back through.
Your brace needs to be tight enough so that it does not slip down when you walk, but loose enough to avoid leaving indentation marks in your skin. As a general rule, you need to be able to snugly fit a finger underneath the straps.
Make sure you wear the brace directly in contact with your skin and not over the top of clothes. If you wear it over clothes, it will slide down. We recommend wearing shorts or baggy trousers.
How to look after the dial
How to look after the dial
Most of the time, your movement will be allowed between 0 and 90 degrees.
So, the gray dial should be in line with 0, and for flexion, it should line up to 90 degrees.
If you have accidentally knocked your brace and need to reposition it, press the dial in and slide it along to the number you need. It will lock in position when it pops back up.
Make sure that the red button is pointed towards the unlock symbol. This will allow your brace to move.
If your brace is not allowing you to move, it might be that it has slid down to the locked position. To unlock it, slide your finger up.