Successful treatment of nonunion in severe finger injury with low-intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS): a case report.

ABSTRACT:
INTRODUCTION:
Severe injuries of the hand or single fingers require immediate treatment but surgical fixationmethods are limited depending on soft tissue damage. Thus, it is very common that severesoft tissue damage along with poor osteosynthetic bone fixation results in a delayed healingprocess or nonunion. Low-intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS) has been proven to stimulatebone formation in in vitro studies and also to significantly accelerate nonunion healing inanimal studies and clinical trials but to date there are no data with respect to nonunion inphalanx fracture.
CASE PRESENTATION:
We report a case in which we successfully used LIPUS in a 19-year-old Caucasian man witha nonunion of his ring finger after injury and first treatment with K-wire osteosynthesis.
CONCLUSION:
We recommend that LIPUS be considered as an option to treat nonunions in fractures of thehand, especially because it is a soft tissue conserving method with a good functional result.
PMID: 22809225