Clinical effects of electromagnetic and electric fields on fracture healing.

The clinical use of electric and electromagnetic fields for fracture healing applications began in the early 1970s. Since then, several technologies have been developed and shown to promote healing in difficult to heal fractures. The development of these devices has been aided in recent years by basic research and several well controlled clinical trials. This review provides a brief description of the different techniques and their respective clinical utility. Finally, future directions in basic and clinical research are outlined to exploit fully the usefulness of these noninvasive bone growth stimulation technologies.