The effect of electric fields on osteoporosis of disuse.

An experiment originally done by McElhaney et al. was repeated to obtain additional information about the effects of electrical fields on osteoporosis of disuse. The right femurs of 35 male rats were immobilized in plaster casts. Sixteen rats were treated with transcutaneous electrical fields of 30 Hz and approximately 100 V/cm for periods of 2 or 8 h a day. While the right femurs of the untreated rats were found to be atrophic with respect to the opposite limb, in the treated rats the immobilized femur was made larger than the opposite bone. Longer daily treatments exaggerated this effect. The tumors found in the previous study were not seen in our experiments. Other similarities and differences in the 2 studies are discussed.