Non-Invasive Union Of Long Bone Fractures Using Electrical Stimulations, A Final Conclusion

Just today while I was doing research towards the patent and research done by Brighton on applying electrical stimulation and capacitative electrical fields to accelerate epiphyseal growth plate growth, I found another old article published showing that applying some type of electrical stimulation will lead to fractures in bones, whether long, short irregular to heal. Any non-unions because the fractures are too big are more likely to heal and join together.

Since I am having some trouble copy and pasting the title, author, and abstract below, I have clipped and pasted a pic of the top of the article below.

non invasive electrical stimulation


What is important to get out of this post is to realize that the idea of using PEMF or some type of capacitative electrical field would indeed help bone formation, bone healing, and bone growth, but it will not help our endeavor, unless the individual is willing to accept the idea of using some type of bone distraction method, where a fracture has to be first induced.

The researchers at the end in the section for “discussion” notes that the PEMF idea is a very simple and safe non-invasive approach to heal bone fractures that don’t heal very well. Before the application of the PEMF, the patients in cast has not had any union in bone segments. After the application of the PEMF, the union occurred in most of the broken bones around or before 6 months. The researchers at the time did not know what was the molecular mechanism which caused the bones to heal from the PEMF application. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of evidence that callus was formed on the outside. There was evidence however that blood vessels did develop though, and this was followed by gradual interfragmentary callus formation.

The conclusion is that PEMF works, and it will lead to bone growth, just not in the way that we are hoping for. It can always be used as a part of any proposed technique or method we might come up with, when it comes time to create revascularization, and callus formation.