Articulated Knee Brace Ok In Salt Water

[Rupert Maclanahan]

I have a knee injury that results in what I would describe as moments of instability due too a complete or almost complete tear of my ACL (MRI is inconclusive on whether the tear is 100 pct, but it is close if not 100 pct). Having gone to an orthopedic surgeon, we decided on a course of physical therapy and a knee brace designed for ACL injuries. This is a custom-made fancy brace with an articulating hinge system with metallic parts that I am not gonna take into salt water. I say salt water because I have had a moment of instability getting into a zodiac from a livaboard in rough weather, and on one occasion on my "standing" knee when making a giant stride. For both situations I have adapted by only using my strong leg, but I would like the option of wearing a brace with the same stability profile as the custom made job. I can't find anything that I would trust to last more than a short time after being exposed to salt water. There are fabric only braces, but I doubt that they would have much of an impact at all. So, I'm looking for an articulated knee brace that's okay in salt water.

Any advice suggestions would be most welcome!

P.S. For those interested, I'm trying to avoid surgery because I have had ACL surgery before, this is re-injury of the graft, I don't want to go through 1 year rehab again, and the doctor says I can do anything, indulging skiing, with the brace.

 

[thomschoon]

Find out what metal it is made of, mine is titanium and stainless. When I wear it I just flush it out and spray with silicone afterwards.

 

[GiraffeMarineSalvage]

Hopefully what you have is titanium and SS like thomschoon's brace, and another option short term if it's less compatible materials (not recommending, just what I would probably do if it were me...) is I would be awfully tempted to warm up some high quality marine trailer bearing grease and work it into the entire articulating hinge system really really well so that all the metallic parts are well coated, and generously wash it in fresh water + proactively re-grease...

 

[lexvil]

Before my knee replacement (I know completely different sort of injury) I was using a fabric type that had soft stiffening ribs, made by ace, not to expensive. I have one here I can send to you if you want to try it (keep it)

 

[formernuke]

I have similar injury. Even for warm water I'm now a drysuit diver so I can wear a brace.

 

[Rupert Maclanahan]

I have similar injury. Even for warm water I'm now a drysuit diver so I can wear a brace.

I had not even thought of a drysuit. That's a great idea.

 

[formernuke]

I had not even thought of a drysuit. That's a great idea.

98 percent of my diving is new england so I've got one anyway.

 

[AZTinman]

For what it's worth, I blew-out my ACL and tore my Meniscus pretty well last October. The MRI indicated that my ACL is pretty much gone. My ortho doc put me in twice a week PT in an effort to avoid surgery. The PT has been a real drag, but seems to be successful in strengthening other support for the knee.

I just returned from Bonaire and did a bunch of shore dives there. Shore diving was a concern because I wanted to avoid lateral movement of the knee joint. I wore a knee brace with lateral support under my wetsuit. It's pictured here:

The dry weight on my camera rig is around twenty-five pounds and I was concerned about whether or not my bad knee could take the weight of scuba gear and my camera rig on uneven surfaces. For additional support, I used a camera monopod like a trekking pole for water entries and exits. Other divers were using trekking poles. The "trekking pole" thing worked beautifully.

I had zero problems with my bad knee until I got routed through TSA in Miami on my trip home. I had wore the brace under my jeans in case I needed to deal with stairs in the terminal. The TSA guys stopped me and made me take the brace off. It was difficult because they didn't provide me with a chair. I ended-up twisting my knee and directed a lengthy string of swear words at the TSA agent who insisted that I remove the brace. After finally clearing TSA, I was able to sit down and let my knee settle down. In hindsight, I should've taken my brace with hinged metal outside supports that I can simply wear over the top of my jeans for the bag drag stuff through the terminals.

 

[broncobowsher]

I've killed my ACL twice. both times took surgery to fix
First time I got a CTI brace. Doc only got it for when I do high risk stuff, doesn't want me wearing it daily. Wants the knee to be strong on its own. I remember the option list included floats in case you wanted to use if for water sking. With as much sweat as I have poured into that thing motorcycle riding, never had an issue. Just ask your CTI rep to be sure.
Got a second ACL repair (I wasn't wearing the brace one day doing simple motorcycle things). New doc got me a DonJoy. Worthless POS that was the biggest fleecing of my insurance. They measured the wrong knee, mirrored the numbers for my repaired knee, had me pick the color, never asked about anything I would use it for. Apparently this one is great for golfers. It showed up at my house in a box, tried it on once, threw it in the corner. Use my correctly optioned out CTI still.