Orthomen OA Unloading Knee Brace for Osteoarthritis Lateral Off Loader Support (Left)

So I have damaged (again) my knee and the surgeon who reviewed me said an unloading knee brace might help. He warned that they are not cheap. I found a range of them on here and also other sites. It seems like a bit of a minefield of what to get and plenty of them looked exactly like this one but were much cheaper, but also had some poor reviews. This seemed to have better reviews, but is really quite expensive. Desperate to get something to help, I ordered it, hoping it would be next day delivery. Quite a shock to realise that it was a direct from China thing and took 3 weeks to arrive. When it came, it was in a very generic plastic bag with basic instructions and does not really feel like over £200 worth of product. I tried it and was not sure it helped, so took it down to the surgeon, who seemed to think that it should work with the hinge on the other side of the knee (it cannot work like that since it would be backwards). Anyway, the surgeon therefore basically said "use it if you want", which was not exactly inspiring. I have since given it one go and it may have helped, but I am still not sure. I seemed to have to tighten the straps very tight and was worried about affecting circulation. Hence, used twice so far and now back in the bag and may or may not be used again. I will talk to the physio when I get to see them and see what they say. Might have been rather a waste of money (and quite a lot of money at that). Time will tell.