This study reviews the cases of eighty-three adults with ununited
fractures who were treated concomitantly with bone-grafting and pulsed
electromagnetic fields. An average of 1.5 years had elapsed since fracture
and the use of this combined approach. Nearly one-third of the patients had
a history of infection, and an average of 2.4 prior operations had failed
to produce bone union. Thirty-eight patients who were initially treated
with grafts and pulsed electromagnetic fields for ununited fractures with
wide gaps, synovial pseudarthrosis, and malalignment achieved a rate of
successful healing of 87 per cent. Forty-five patients who had initially
been treated unsuccessfully with pulsing electromagnetic fields alone had
bone-grafting and were re-treated with pulsing electromagnetic fields.
Ninety-three per cent of these fractures healed. The residual failure rate
after two therapeutic attempts, one of which was operative, was 1.5 per
cent. The median time to union for both groups of patients was four
months.