BLASTING bones with shock waves sounds like a bad idea, but it turns out that it stimulates bone growth. The non-invasive technique might help treat fractures that refuse to heal, and perhaps even reduce the need for hip replacements by encouraging ageing joints to regenerate.
Shock waves – single, high-pressure pulses – have long been used to break up kidney stones. They travel through soft tissue without causing damage but release their energy when they hit a hard substance such as bone. Doctors noticed decades ago that people who had multiple treatments for kidney stones grew extra bone on the pelvis, even though later studies showed the waves do not damage these bones.
Now Joerg Hausdorf’s team at Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich, Germany, has studied the effect of shock waves on bone cells. The pulses stimulate production of an important bone growth factor, bFGH, Hausdorf told a meeting of the US and Canadian acoustical societies in Vancouver this week. He thinks shock waves activate the same growth mechanisms as stretching and pressure.
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