Ultrasound May Aid Healing of Fractures
Anyone who’s ever broken a bone has hoped that the fracture fairy tale is true: Your bone will heal quickly.
Unfortunately there is no magic wand to guarantee that, but ultrasound treatments might speed the process a bit, according to researchers who found that such treatments shaved a month off the usual time spent in a cast.
In three recent studies, researchers used a new hand-held ultrasound device specifically designed for healing fractures. It emits low-intensity sound waves and works on the same principle as diagnostic ultrasound to view a fetus, but it uses a different frequency. (Approval from the Food and Drug Administration for general use is pending.)
In the studies, conducted at the University of Texas in San Antonio and the University of Vermont College of Medicine, patients with shin or forearm fractures placed the ultrasound device over windows cut into their casts at the fracture sites for 20 minutes a day. After treatment, the windows were plugged again.
Patients began the treatment no later than a week after the accidents occurred. The device has been tested on 170 patients, says Jack Ryaby, president of Interpore Orthopaedics, New Jersey, the manufacturer.
Leg fracture patients who used the device had their casts removed after an average of 92 days. Patients in the control group who didn’t use the ultrasound treatment had their casts removed after an average of 120 days.
The treatment might speed healing by stimulating the bone-forming cells to do their repair work faster, Ryaby says. The device will cost about $1,000, Ryaby says, but probably will be available on a lease basis.
A local orthopedic surgeon says the idea sounds promising. “If it does no harm, I see no reason not to try it, if the costs are reasonable and the patient is willing to invest the time,” says Gary Pattee, a Santa Monica orthopedic surgeon on staff at St. John’s Hospital and Health Center.
Meanwhile, Pattee hears the same questions--and the same misconceptions--over and over from patients with fractures.
Patients ask: “If I drink a gallon of milk a day, will I heal faster?”
“It certainly can’t hurt,” Pattee tells them, “but it probably won’t make a lot of difference in the healing process as long as there was not a (calcium) deficiency to begin with.”
Once the casts or splints are removed, most patients are surprised that their limbs do not look healed or function normally. “Once the fracture heals, the soft tissues--ligaments and tendons--need to recover from both the immobilization and the trauma of the injury,” Pattee explains.
Casts today are usually made of fiberglass, a more “breathable” material than old-fashioned plaster. But they can still get itchy.
For relief, some experts advise gently blowing talcum power down to the itch via a hair dryer. Pattee agrees that’s OK in moderation and much better than relying on a coat hanger for scratching--a definite no-no.
But he knows that some folks don’t heed the no-scratch rule. As proof, he offers a partial list of items recovered while removing casts: “Knitting needles, quarters, dimes and an emery board.”
