An elderly patient has a broken femur that is healing very slowly. A young resident suggests using a device that will create an electrical field in the area of the fracture to help speed the healing process. Why might this possibly help?
Osteoblasts are attracted to electrical fields produced by bone crystals when they are stressed. This is one of the reasons that trabeculae of bones are organized along stress lines. If the same type of electrical field could be duplicated at the site of the fracture, osteoblasts may be stimulated to migrate to the area and increase the rate of bone production and thus healing of the fracture.
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