Knee Braces

[AlisoBob]

Hey Ellett...

Run through those thoughts that you shared with me about your orthopedist stating that Knee Braces can actually increase the damage done to your knee in a accident...

A buddy of mine is holding off purchase, until he has all the facts...

Thanks

[Ported&Polished]

Just one comment, my old buddy owned a company called CTI knee braces in Irvine Ca.. They were the best motocross knee brace available, and you got a doctors prescription to get them, and they were covered by your health insurance because they cost alot of money. He sold the company so I can't varify how good they are now. Now the dude is retired and living on a motocross ranch that I see in every magazine, it's called the Castillo ranch, youve probly heard of it. Ok, back to the topic.

[iggys-amsoil]

There is some debate about weither or not they could/would aid in braking a femur, which is very serious. To me the odds of a knee injury are far greater than a broken femur. I still don't have them.

[97af]

EVS Webs around my knees everytime I ride.

[97af]

Hey Ellett...

Run through those thoughts that you shared with me about your orthopedist stating that Knee Braces can actually increase the damage done to your knee in a accident...

A buddy of mine is holding off purchase, until he has all the facts...

The braces do not increase the risk of knee damage. They do increase the possibility of a Femur fracture.If you are going to hyper extend your knee back to the point of cracking your Femur,your pretty much S.O.L. anyway.A Femur fracture is a life threatning injury due to internal blood loss so I'm in no way advocating using or not using them.Its your call.I'm willing to take the chance that the crash that I have while wearing them isnt bad enough to kink my leg at the knee back to the point of breaking the thickest bone in my body.BTW,the Webs have a crumple zone in them to give that added extra lee-way in case it does get close.

[AlisoBob]

Yea.. thats exactly what Ellett was taking about...

Snapping your Femur ....... GOTTA hurt......

[rabbit]

which begs the questions, how many of you hoons know basic first aid and have teh stuff needed to apply it? LIke the man said a broken femur can be life threatening but good first aid can save a life.

[ellett]

My orthopedist (who treats a lot of MXers) stressed, repeatedly, that these were only his opinions and that they were based on purely anecdotal evidence (since there is little MX specific scientific evidence or studies) and should in no way affect your choices in personal protective gear.

He said that the most common type of MX knee injury he sees is ACL/meniscus damage of the type that knee braces are unable to prevent, that is, the type of injury that results when you enter a turn, lose the front end, stick your leg out to catch yourself and slam your foot into the ground. That'll pop your ACL and pinch off a good part of your meniscus. If you do it hard enough you can split your tibia right down the middle.

He also added that knee braces tend to concentrate crash forces at the middle of the femur (and tib/fib), almost trading a knee injury for a femur or tib/fib fracture.

So, back when I had two good knees and asked him about knee braces, he replied, "Since knee braces cannot prevent the most common type of knee injury I treat, why take a chance that they could lead to possibly life (or limb) threatening fractures?"

Now, he also said, if your knees are shot and you need the support of a brace just to get back out on the track, then they are great. But if your knees are healthy, knee braces could lead to more serious leg injuries.

Again all of this should be taken with a grain of salt and you should protect yourself in such a way that you feel safe and comfortable.

[ellett]

To me the odds of a knee injury are far greater than a broken femur.

Of all the MX related injuries he treats, I don't recall which injury my doc sees more of (I want to say "knee", but I can't be sure). But he (and my therapists) said knee injuries, compared to leg fractures, are much easier to recover from.

And with what little pain I went through with my knee injury, compared to the pain my son went through with his tib/fib fracture, I'll take another blown-out knee any day.

[zorak-2]

He said that the most common type of MX knee injury he sees is ACL/meniscus damage of the type that knee braces are unable to prevent, that is, the type of injury that results when you enter a turn, lose the front end, stick your leg out to catch yourself and slam your foot into the ground. That'll pop your ACL and pinch off a good part of your meniscus. If you do it hard enough you can split your tibia right down the middle.

This happened to me the last ride in October of 06. Went up a hill lost my momentom and fell into a hole put my foot down then came the pain. Later on in the day caught a rut started to go down put the same foot
down and hurt it even more. Buy the time i got back to fresno my knee was the same size as my thigh. Still waiting to get it fixed.

[MICK]

Yeah a broken femur is very serious. It's seriousness though is whether or not the femoral artery has been ruptured. Your femur is under alot of tension. Your quads are constantly pulling on your femur. If it breaks your thigh muscles will collapse the two halfs of the femur grinding it against itself. When this happens the jagged broken end, as well as bone shards, can sever your femoral artery.
Now your femoral is as big around as your thumb. Passes alot of blood. If it's totally severed, you'll die in a few short minutes. Seconds maybe, and I'm not kidding either. You'd best hope the painfull break was so agonizing you passed out. Patients often go into shock, their heart racing, they bleed out in seconds.
If the artery has infact been severed, it will often retract into the pelvis. If the rupture happened near the knee, it will still retract deep and high into the thigh musculature. If it's in the pelvis he'll soon be dead. In the thigh and you may gain a couple minutes by applying a turnicate high on the thigh and close to the pelvis.
You can't "first-aid" a patient bleeding out of a broken femur. Most cases like this I deal with are ballistic in nature. Ummm...shrapnel, bullets and the like...You have to stop the bleeding at it's source. What we do is put our hands into the patients leg, if it means making an incision big enough for our hands to fit. Following the path of the foriegn object we carefully feel for the patients pulse. Basically his heart beating blood into our open hand. Follow the pulse to the artery and clamp that bitch.
An ordinary person isn't going to do this...

So this is a quick list of things anybody can and should perform if this were to happen to a friend of yours.
1. Is his hurt leg shorter then the other *yes*
2. Take his pants off.
3. Check for a pulse below the suspected break. (good place is on the foot)
4. If weak or no pulse immediately apply ternicate to upper thigh.
5. If strong pulse felt splint leg as is. *IMPORTANT* If he's got a pulse you don't want the broken bones rattling around trying to sever the artery.
6. If you splinted the leg check the pulse again once you've finished.
7. Elevate leg, loosen restrictive clothing, keep patient cool and comfortable. (you want the patients heart rate as calm and steady as possible.)

Massive swelling will begin to take place. Patient triage doesn't end at step 7. You must continually monitor patient as loosening more clothing may be nessecary due to swelling. That's way you raise the broken leg, helps keep swelling down, and may also help a slow a bleeder if that's the case.

Of course notifying higher treatment personel has got to be done as well. But have somebody else do the calling. If this isn't done first. You might as well dig a hole and burry him right there.
Not all femur breaks cause loss of blood, I've seen one in eight or nine breaks. And not all breaks that rupture the femoral will bleed out in seconds. But it CAN happen quite easily. So if you don't take immediate action and treat the patient...you won't have time to say any last words.

Whew...Ranger First-Responder 101. So who wants to go riding?!

[AlisoBob]

Your femur is under alot of tension. Your quads are constantly pulling on your femur.

Wouldnt this put your femur in "compression"....

[MICK]

Yes compression. Excuse my lack of knowledge about the english language. I wasted my high school years riding bikes. Now look at me...I'm a bullet sponge

[BIGWORM500]

I have had 4 knee surgerys and have to wear my CTi2 braces or i cant ride.I wouldnt worry to much about them being a bad thing they are the best thing to wear besides a helmet of course.Once you mess your knees up you will wish you had some good braces earlier.Trust me i know from experience.
Wearing a knee brace isn't gonna break a femur its the Crash thats doing that come on now people.If your legs gonna snap it's gonna SNAP.