Interdisciplinary Approaches in Electrically Mediated Bone Growth Studies

Abstract

It is possible to discern the following four distinct approaches to the study of electrically mediated bone regeneration, namely: observation of osteogenesis that results from the passage of electric current either injected percutaneously or produced by active implants; measurement of voltages generated by the stressing of bone; measurement of skin, periosteum, and bone surface potentials under normal and abnormal conditions; and microscopic examination of organ or tissue cultures under the influence of electric or magnetic fields.Experimentation of the first type has been conducted by many investigators; the most well-known results are those of Bassett and colleagues,l who produced clearly observable bone growth in dog femurs, particularly around the cathodes of active implants that had electrodes projecting into intermedullary cavities. Other workers repeated the procedure with varying degrees of success; O'Connor and associates* found that, in some cases, significant growth appeared near the anode of active implants. In 1969, Lavine and coworkers3 deplored the lack of controls employed during such experimentation and attempted to apply more rigorous physical constraints. In I97 1, Hambury and collaborators' continued the quantification of such investigation by utilizing a radioactive strontium uptake method for assessing the actual amount of new bone formed. The experiments were performed on rabbits rather than on dogs, and the bone growth at electrically active, as opposed to inactive control, implants was not demonstrably greater. In addition, quantitative 508