Author: Ying ZM, Lin T, Yan SG.
Affiliation: Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, the Second Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310009, China; Department of Orthopaedic Research, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
Conference/Journal: J Zhejiang Univ Sci B.
Date published: 2012 Dec
Other:
Volume ID: 13 , Issue ID: 12 , Pages: 955-63 , Special Notes: doi: 10.1631/jzus.B1200129. , Word Count: 179
Incorporation of a tendon graft within the bone tunnel represents a challenging clinical problem. Successful anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction requires solid healing of the tendon graft in the bone tunnel. Enhancement of graft healing to bone is important to facilitate early aggressive rehabilitation and a rapid return to pre-injury activity levels. No convenient, effective or inexpensive procedures exist to enhance tendon-bone (T-B) healing after surgery. Low-intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS) improves local blood perfusion and angiogenesis, stimulates cartilage maturation, enhances differentiation and proliferation of osteoblasts, and motivates osteogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), and therefore, appears to be a potential non-invasive tool for T-B healing in early stage of rehabilitation of ACL reconstruction. It is conceivable that LIPUS could be used to stimulate T-B tunnel healing in the home, with the aim of accelerating rehabilitation and an earlier return to normal activities in the near future. The purpose of this review is to demonstrate how LIPUS stimulates T-B healing at the cellular and molecular levels, describe studies in animal models, and provide a future direction for research.
PMID: 23225850