BraceAbility Obesity Hinged Knee Pain Brace - Overweight Men and Women's Wraparound Plus-Size Support for Osteoarthritis, Weak Joints, Medial and Lateral Kneecap Instability (Large)

TL;DR Review, (full review below)Good Brace, The Bars do NOT poke into you, 4 stars: top strap can be too loose and slide a little, can tighten strap though. Easy on, Easy off.MAKE SURE you wear upside up.Do NOT Tighten or you can injure (True with ALL Bracers, not just this one)Was VERY Satisfied with the product. back for a new smaller one.Full Review:So I have been working on my weight this year and needed a knee brace and getting one in my size was no easy task. I got the brace that was suggested per the chart here, and it worked great for a while.The problem is over time, I had to keep tightening it more and more. This is GOOD Problem to have because that means I have been making progress! Over the months of use it eventually got to a point that the velcro was as tight as it could go, but the straps I could get tighter so I kept going with it.IMPORTANT If you keep tightening and tightening the straps without thought, you will eventually tighten it so much that you can injure yourself. this is true of ANY Knee Brace sure, but you need to be mindful of this as you make progress. :) One of the metal bars cut me (Barely) when I tightened it WAAAAAY Too much, again my own fault. NORMALLY the bars do not poke in the wrong areas like so many of the competition does. :)So why a 4 for Stability? Because the top part of the knee brace does slide down a bit. Usually I would put it on, and then get up and tighten the top strap again more. Annoying but manageable! Easy to adjust.I hurt myself by going too tight so I have to stay off my knee for a few days as it recovers, and after discussing it with my Physical Therapist, I went into detail to make sure what kind of Knee Brace I really need, and this is it. In fact, she suggested I go with it again, (only smaller this time lol)Really it was my own fault I got hurt, not the knee brace! This is a Good Product, and I am back to resize myself and get a better choice! Dang losing all that weight sure causes problems! lol ;)

When ordering, I matched my purchase size with my thigh measurement, which put me a size and a half above my calf measurement. This appears to have been mostly successful, because the thigh fits and although the main velcro on the calf doesn't match up, I can overwrap it and use the cinch strap to keep the thing around my calf pretty well. I practiced with this brace walking around for a couple hours at home before using it for its intended purpose (I bought it for support during sports). After about a half hour of semi-success walking and bending, I googled threads for keeping knee braces from slipping down over time. This appears to be a major frustration out there, even among professionals. The best advice I found was to use a medical sleeve (I just happened to have one from a previous injury requiring a boot) under the brace to provide extra friction with my skin. I then tried out this brace last night playing volleyball. The hinge supports definitely stabilized my knee and helped me play with less pain than the sleeve brace I'd been using; and I noticed significantly less pain and swelling the next day as well when I wasn't wearing the brace. I tugged the brace up a little (I'm 6' tall, so this still kept the hinges in the right place for me) and tightened the calf strap just above the largest part of my muscle. That plus the under-sleeve kept the brace in place pretty well even while sweating, and I only had to tug it up a bit during the games. Because of the success in reducing pain, I ordered a smaller size considering the calf strap appears to be the instrumental part in keeping this brace on my leg. Plus, I cinched the whole thing tighter when wearing it than the measuring tape was when I was initially sized. I will be keeping this current one though, since it seems pretty well-sized to wear over leggings or pants if I'm in a situation where I need that.

Ok, let me face the immediate question everyone seems to have based on various reviews. I measured carefully, enlisting a Nurse Practitioner to measure the leg based on the instructions provided by BraceAbility. So when the brace arrived, I admit I put it on (again, carefully following most of the instruction included with the brace) with a bit of trepidation.The brace fits just fine. Indeed, I have no doubt that had I purchased a brace two sizes smaller, as suggested loudly by some reviews and question responses, this brace would never close around my leg.Now that that is out of the way, some notes. BraceAbility could easily include a small soft-fabric label on the inside marking "Top" to save the new customer from spending an inordinate amount of time making sure the brace wasn't upside-down; me, I just used the logo on the front instead of the instruction sheet. I applied the brace standing-up instead of sitting, which I suspect makes for a better closure. The brace does occasionally need some adjustment; a quick trip to the rest room handles that. I can't imagine any way to keep it from slightly sliding down short of a garter belt...at no point did it fall off my leg, simply gets a bit "bunchy" after wearing for a few hours requiring a small adjustment. Honestly, if you aren't moving the leg and knee, you don't really need the brace in the first place, so this is IMHO a reasonable situation.The hinges are...not terribly impressive, and are VERY difficult to remove without tearing the pocket slot. Another 1/4-1/2" on that pocket would make it much less stressful to remove. All hinge complaints aside, they do seem to provide reasonable lateral support to the knee, and even with my specific bone damage to that joint, walking is much more comfortable with the brace than without. As I specifically purchased the brace to exercise to reduce the size of the leg (and the rest of me above it!), it has certainly over the past few days proved successful. It has all but eliminated my use of a cane in both standard daily activity and short exercise walks, providing a noticeable stability to the joint and considerable reduction in pain. YMMV, based on your particular medical situation.Should anything substantive change, I will edit this review; but in the short time I have had the brace, I have been pleased with its performance and effects.As a non-medical-related aside, one of my daughter's felines just loves playing with the attachment straps while I put it on or take it off...