Electromagnetic Stimulation of Canine Bone Grafts*

ABSTRACT: We evaluated the use of pulsed electro-magnetic-field stimulation to affect the rate of healing or incorporation of segmental autogenous cortical bone grafts in the dog in vivo. This non-invasive method of electrical stimulation has been implicated in increasing bone osteogenesis or augmentation of the repair process in the canine fibular osteotomy. We utilized two-month and six-month stimulation protocols. At six months, all of the animals were evaluated biomechanically using rapid-loading torsional testing. Histological evaluation using tetracycline labeling was used to evaluate cumu-lative new-bone formation and porosity, while graft-host time to union was evaluated roentgenographically every two weeks. Recent reports have implied that particular puls