WO2007093139A2

WO2007093139A2 - Support spring and below-knee orthosis

Info

Publication number: WO2007093139A2
Application number: PCT/DE2006/002035
Authority: WO
Inventors: Norbert GÜNTHER; Ferdinand Gottinger
Original assignee: Guenther Norbert; Ferdinand Gottinger
Priority date: 2006-02-16
Filing date: 2006-11-20
Publication date: 2007-08-23
Also published as: WO2007093139A3; DE202006002575U1

Abstract

A support spring for a below-knee orthosis is disclosed, which is designed as a leaf spring, with an end section for the foot and an end section for the lower leg, which end sections are connected to one another via a heel part curved in the opposite direction. Compared to the end section for the lower leg and to the end section for the foot, the material of the heel part is strengthened. A below-knee orthosis comprising such a support spring is also disclosed.

Description

Support spring and lower leg orthosis

The invention relates to a support spring for a lower leg orthosis according to the preamble of claim 1 and a lower leg orthosis according to the preamble of claim. 6

Lower leg orthoses are used, for example, in patients with deep paralysis, in muscular diseases, infantile paralysis, neurological changes or even in healthy people to support the function of the human foot. The lower leg orthosis holds the foot with respect to the lower leg, with forward and rearward movement, i.e., movement of the lower leg. in the longitudinal direction, determined is released. The mobility forward is usually formed over a larger area than the mobility to the rear. The relative mobility of the foot transversely with respect to the lower leg should be reduced to a minimum in most cases.

A known lower leg orthosis with a support spring is shown in Applicant's European patent EP 1 389 985 B1. This lower leg orthosis has a foot cuff and a lower leg cuff, which are connected to each other via a support spring. The support spring is a leaf spring with a constant wall thickness made of a carbon fiber reinforced plastic. It can absorb energy during the performance and stance phase and return it in the repulsive phase, so that the patient is even able to walk or jump with good coordination and thus be able to be physically active despite his disability , The support spring has a foot-side end portion for making the connection with the foot cuff and a lower leg-side end portion for making the connection with the lower leg cuff connected to each other via a counter-curved to the heel part. However, it has been shown that especially in athletically active patients, the support spring tends due to the increased stress during sport to break in the heel.

Object of the present invention is therefore to provide a support spring and a lower leg orthosis, which has a higher stability than the previously described known support spring without the mobility of the patient is adversely affected.

This object is achieved by a support spring having the features according to claim 1 and by a lower leg orthosis with the features according to claim 6.

A support spring according to the invention for a lower leg orthosis, is designed as a leaf spring, preferably made of a carbon fiber reinforced plastic, and has a foot-side end portion and a lower leg end portion. The end sections are connected to each other via a counter-curved heel part. According to the invention, the heel part is reinforced with material. The advantage of this solution is that the support spring in the heel part made more stable than the above-described conventional support spring, so that the risk of breakage of the support spring at an increased load, such as may occur during a sporting exercise, is prevented.

Preferably, the heel part has a greater thickness than the lower leg-side and the foot-side end portion.

Advantageously, the foot-side end portion is tapered in the direction away from the heel part, so that a "soft" plantar flexion is possible despite the material-reinforced heel part.

In particular, the support spring in the heel part may have a sole-side pin forming a pivot axis, which is preferably mounted in bearing portions of the heel part.

A preferred lower leg orthosis has a lower leg cuff and a foot cuff and a support spring according to the invention with a material-reinforced heel part for connecting the cuffs.

Preferably, the foot cuff is pivotally mounted on the support spring. This has the advantage that during walking, despite the material reinforcement in the heel region of the support spring, no excessive thrust load is introduced into the knee. The foot cuff may have a stop on which the support spring runs with its foot-side end portion, so that the pivoting in a plantarflexion patent-related individually limited.

Preferably, the stop is buffer-like and consists of a rubber-elastic material, in particular of an elastomer, so that the foot-side end portion is cushioned when running onto the stop.

Other advantageous embodiments of the invention are the subject of further subclaims.

In the following, a preferred embodiment of the invention is explained in more detail with reference to schematic representations. Show it

1 shows a side view of a lower leg orthosis with a support spring according to the invention,

FIG. 2 shows a rear view of the lower leg orthosis from FIG. 1,

FIG. 3 shows a section-wise enlarged longitudinal section through a sole of the lower leg orthosis shown in FIG. 1,

Figure 4 is an enlarged side view of the support spring of Figure 1;

Figure 5 is an enlarged front view of the support spring of Figure 1 and

Figure 6 is a front view of a support spring with Glenkstift.

Figures 1 and 2 each show a highly simplified schematic representation of a lower leg orthosis 2 according to the invention, which is used in deep paralysis for supporting the foot. By means of the lower leg orthosis 2, the function of the upper ankle, i. the lifting and lowering of the foot in the longitudinal direction (forward and backward) are made possible. The function of the lower ankle, i. the lateral raising and lowering, should not be made possible by the lower leg orthosis 2 according to the invention. Accordingly, the lower leg orthosis 2 is designed to be relatively stiff in the direction of movement perpendicular to the plane of the drawing of FIG.

The lower leg orthosis 2 surrounds the lower leg 6 with a lower leg cuff 4 and, with a foot cuff 8, the foot 10 of the patient, these being connected to one another via a support spring 12 controlling the movement according to the invention. - A -

The sleeves 4, 8 are used to transmit the supporting forces of the support spring 12 on the leg and are preferably made of plastic. For customization to the thigh length of each patient, the lower leg cuff 4 is height adjustable. According to FIG. 1, the cuffs 4, 8 have on their front end face 14 a non-visible overlap which can be opened for attaching the lower leg orthosis 2 in order to insert the lower leg into the lower leg cuff 4 or the foot 10 into the foot cuff 8. The two overlapping end portions of each cuff 4, 8 are fixed in position by a suitable fastener, for example a hook and loop fastener 16, which overlaps the two end portions of the overlap. To reduce wear, the foot cuff 8 is provided with a sole 18. To increase the wearing comfort, the cuffs 4, 8 on a padding, not shown.

The support spring 12 has a lower leg-side end portion 22 and a foot-side end portion 24, which are connected to each other via a counter-curved heel portion 26. The lower leg end portion 24 is received in a pocket 28 of the lower leg cuff 4 and detachably connected to the lower leg cuff 4. The foot cuff 8 is pivotally mounted on the support spring 12 about a pivot axis 30 according to the invention extending transversely to the longitudinal axis of the foot. For this purpose, the heel part 26 has a recess 32 for receiving a sole-side joint pin, not shown. Furthermore, the sole 18 has a chamber 34 shown in FIG. 3 for receiving the foot-side end section 8. A more detailed description of the support spring 12 is given in FIGS. 4 and 5.

As shown greatly simplified in the enlarged view in Figure 3, the chamber 34 in the sole 18 has a rectangular cross-section with a height H, which is greater than the height h of the foot-side end portion 24, so that the Fußmanschette 8 about the pivot axis 30th can pivot relative to the support spring 12. To limit the pivoting, a stop 38 is arranged on a ceiling surface 36 of the chamber 34, on which the foot-side end portion 24 runs up during a plantarflexion (indicated by dashed lines).

The stop 38 is releasably secured to the ceiling surface 36 and can be customized in shape and choice of material to the patient. Preferably, the stop 38 is made of a rubber-elastic material, For example, an elastomer, so that the contact between the stopper 38 and the sole side end portion 24 is cushioned or buffered. The stop 38 has a stop surface 40, which is employed in the basic position of the lower leg orthosis 2 in accordance with the maximum pivot angle α to the longitudinal axis 42 of the foot-side end portion 24.

In the basic position (solid line), d. That is, in the stance phase, the foot-side end portion 24 rests on a bottom surface 42 of the chamber 34 and is spaced from the stopper 38. When transitioning into a walking phase, the foot cuff 8 performs a plantar flexion when putting the heel on the ground, i. H. Turning clockwise as viewed in FIG. 3, the foot-side end portion 24 is removed from the bottom surface 42 until it comes into contact with the abutment surface 40 of the stop 38 (dashed line), so that the support spring 12 is tensioned and a supporting force developed.

The support spring 12 has according to Figure 4 has an approximately L-shaped structure. The curvature of the heel part 26 is formed by two radii r and R, wherein over the radius r substantially the mobility of the support spring 12 forward, d. H. in the clockwise direction in Figure 4 (plantarflexion), and the radius R, the mobility of the support spring 12 to the rear, d. H. counterclockwise in Figure 4 (Dorsalflexion), is determined.

According to the invention, the heel part 26 is made reinforced in material compared to the lower leg end portion 22 and the foot end portion 24. In the embodiment shown, the heel part 26 has a greater thickness D than the end sections 22, 24. By this material reinforcement, the stability of the support spring 12 is increased both in a plantar as well as a Dorsalflexion and thus, especially in a heavy load of the support spring 12, as they may occur, for example, in sports, a break in the heel part 26 is prevented. However, in order not to initiate an excessive thrust load in the knee when walking, it is preferred if the material reinforcement increases the stability of the support spring 12 primarily only in terms of Dorsalflexion. For this purpose, the foot-side end portion 26 is tapered in the direction away from the heel part 26. The taper of the foot-side end portion 24 nearly compensates for the material reinforcement in the heel part 26, so that a "soft" plantar flexion is possible despite the material reinforcement. The compensation of the material reinforcement can be further improved if, as described in Figures 1 and 3, the foot sleeve 24, for example at Plantarflexion on the pivot axis 30 with respect to the support spring 12 is relatively pivotable.

The lower leg end portion 22 preferably has a constant wall thickness or thickness d, which, as already mentioned, according to the invention is smaller than the thickness D of the heel part 26.

As can be seen from the front view of Figure 5, the support spring 12 is formed as a leaf spring, wherein as a material preferably a fiber reinforced plastic, for example, carbon fiber reinforced plastic is used. This material is characterized by excellent bending stiffness with minimal weight and high fatigue strength. In principle, however, other suitable materials can be used, but they must always be selected with regard to minimum weight and maximum fatigue strength.

In the embodiment shown in Figure 1 of the Relativverschwenkung between support spring 12 and foot cuff 8 enabling hinge pin to be stored in the foot cuff 8 and enforce the recess 32. FIG. 6 shows an alternative solution, in which a hinge pin 44 is inserted into the recess 32 indicated by dashed lines. The length of this hinge pin 44 is greater than the width (horizontal in Figure 6) of the heel part 26 of the support spring 12 is selected so that two end portions 46, 48 laterally, d. h., Projecting transversely to the Fußlängsachse from the heel part 26. These end portions 46, 48 are pivotally received in bearing portions 50, 52 indicated by dot-dash lines, so that the lower leg orthosis 2 supports the foot and the lower leg area in an optimum manner during walking. To enable this Relativverschwenkbarkeit between foot cuff 8 and support spring 12, the foot-side end portion 24 of the support spring 12 may be stored in the Fußmanschette 8 and / or the sole 18, that he allows this Relativverschwenkung, the maximum pivoting range is limited in a suitable manner.

Disclosed is a support spring for a lower leg orthosis, which is formed as a leaf spring, with a foot-side end portion and a lower leg-side end portion which are interconnected via a counter-curved heel portion, wherein the heel portion compared to the lower leg end portion and the foot-side end portion reinforced material, and a lower leg orthosis with such a support spring. LIST OF REFERENCE NUMBERS

orthosis

Lower leg sleeve

lower leg

Foot cuff

foot

support spring

front

velcro fastener

sole

Support spring lower leg end portion foot side end portion

heel

bag

swivel axis

recess

chamber

floor area

attack

stop surface

longitudinal axis

pintle

end

bearing section

Claims

claims

1. Support spring for a lower leg orthosis, which is as a leaf spring (12), preferably made of a carbon fiber reinforced plastic, formed with a foot-side end portion (22) and a lower leg end portion (24) connected via a counter-curved heel part (26) are characterized in that the heel part (26) in comparison to the lower leg end portion (22) and the foot-side end portion (24) is material reinforced.

2. A support spring according to claim 1, wherein the heel part has a greater thickness (D) than the lower leg end portion (22) and the foot-side end portion (24).

3. A support spring according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the foot-side end portion (24) in the direction away from the heel part (26) is tapered.

4. Support spring according to claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein in the region of the heel part (26) has a recess (32) for receiving a pivot axis (30) forming the sole side hinge pin is formed.

5. Support spring according to one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the hinge pin (44) is glued into the recess (32).

6. Knee orthosis with a lower leg cuff (4) for grasping a lower leg (6) and with a foot cuff (8) for grasping a foot (10), characterized in that the lower leg cuff (4) and the foot cuff (8) via a support spring (8). 12) according to one of claims 1 to 4 are interconnected.

7. lower leg cuff according to claim 5, wherein the foot cuff (24) is articulated to the support spring (12).

The lower leg orthosis according to claim 7, wherein the foot cuff has bearing portions for receiving the end portions of a hinge pin (44) received in the support spring (2).

, The lower leg orthosis according to claim 6 to 8, wherein the foot cuff (8) has a stop (38) for limiting the pivoting of the support spring (12) in a plantarflexion, on which the support spring (12) with a maximum pivoting with its foot-side end portion (24). runs.

10. The lower leg orthosis according to claim 9, wherein the stop (38) is a rubber-elastic element, preferably made of an elastomer.