An intelligent active brace system for the treatment of scoliosis

Efficiency of brace treatment for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis is correlated to how the brace has been worn. The more often the patients wear their braces to the prescribed tightness as well as to the prescribed length of time each day, the better the treatment outcomes. This paper describes an active intelligent brace system designed to maintain the interface pressure between the brace and body within the prescribed range during daily activity. The intelligent system consists of a microcomputer, a force transducer and a force feedback component. A subject who has no scoliosis volunteered to test the system for a few hours. Preliminary trials indicate that wearing the system increases the amount of time which a subject wears his brace in the prescribed range of tightness. The test subject wore the brace without feedback within the prescribed range of tightness for 28% of the time, whereas when the air bladder feedback system was activated, the subject wore the brace effectively for 47% of the time.