50 patients with knee osteoarthritis involving the medial compartment were randomized to receive an unloader brace or to continue conservative care without a brace (control group) for a 24 week period. The purpose of this study was to compare patient-reported measures of pain and function between the two groups. The results from this study indicated significant differences over the 24-week follow-up favouring the unloader brace group for the Knee Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS) pain, symptoms, activities of daily living subscales, as well as visual analog scales of pain and activity level. The use of an unloader brace did not reduce the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID).