Study of Textile Fabric Materials used in Spinal Braces for Scoliosis

Scoliosis patients are normally treated either by surgery or by wearing spinal braces for correction. A spinal brace may be made of rigid materials or soft materials. The use of soft materials for braces, such as fabric materials, is one alternative being used to develop soft braces because textile materials could be comfortable and provide high compliance with users. However, there are no studies about how to provide treatment/prevention of scoliosis using various textile fabric materials to fabricate a soft brace. Thus, this study aims to study the effect of the physical and mechanical properties of textile fabric materials used in a soft brace for the treatment/prevention of scoliosis using finite element model (FEM) simulation. This study covers the following stages: a) development of a geometric model of scoliosis through finite element modelling using 2D X-ray clinical data; b) selection of appropriate textile materials to be used in a soft brace by measuring physical and mechanical properties; and c) determination of the performance of the soft brace fabricated with various textile fabric materials in terms of the Cobb angle through FEM simulation. The results of this study found that the textile fabric materials made of polyester with sandwich mesh and elastic band in parallel layer provides good softness and air permeability and it has a high capability to provide the treatment of scoliosis in terms of Cobb angle changed by 14.4% using FEM simulation. Such design of soft brace with textile fabric materials provides more comfortable for patients in wearing for long time. It is worthwhile for rehabilitation professionals to design appropriate textile-based soft braces for scoliosis.