Using musculoskeletal simulations to aid in knee brace development

Knee braces have been proposed to prevent anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries, and musculoskeletal (MS) models can be used to assess the effect of such braces on joint mechanics. Therefore, the aim of this study was to use MS simulations to estimate the effect of an in silico ACL injury prevention brace. Motion capture and force plate data recorded of one subject were used to drive a lower-limb inverse dynamic model with, and without, the equivalent loads of a virtual brace that applied a posterior force and internal axial moment to the shank. A second MS model using the force-dependent kinematics method was used to estimate the effect of the brace on ligament loading, secondary joint kinematics, and contact forces. The results suggest that MS simulations are a powerful tool to assess and design knee braces.