PICKERING and SCAMMELLELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS FOR BONE HEALING Electromagnetic Fields for Bone

Electrical stimulation has been applied in a number of differ-ent ways to influence tissue healing. Most of the early work was carried out by orthopedic surgeons looking for newways of enhancing fracture healing, particularly those fractures that had developed into nonunions. Electrical energy can be supplied to a fracture by direct application of electrodes or inducing current by use of pulsed electromagnetic field or ca-pacitive coupling. Many of these techniques have not been standardized, so interpretation of the literature can be diffi-cult andmisleading. Despite this, there have been a few good laboratoryandclinical studies to investigate the effect of elec-trical stimulation on fracture healing, which are reviewed. These donot permit recommendation or rejection of the tech-nique per se; however, there is some room for optimism. The authors present some of the guidelines for using this treat