Can conventional therapeutic ultrasound units be used to accelerate fracture repair?

Abstract

Ultrasound is one of the most widely used electrotherapeutic modalities applied by physiotherapists. Despite this, its full therapeutic potential is still being established. This is reflected by its recent application in the treatment of bone fractures. In both animal and human trials, ultrasound has been shown to accelerate the rate of fracture repair by a factor of 1.6. These investigations used specifically modified diagnostic units which produce ultrasound at a different dosage to that produced by conventional therapeutic units. Whether a similar rate of acceleration occurs with the application of ultrasound units customarily used in physiotherapy clinical practice has not been establish..