ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Low frequency-pulsed electromagnetic fields (LF-PEMFs) have been confirmed to not only treat delayed bone union or nonunion, but also be effective for fresh bone fractures, ostectomy and fatigue fractures.OBJECTIVE: To systematically evaluate the efficacy and safety of LF-PEMFs for bone healing.METHODS: CNKI and PubMed databases were retrieved for the randomized controlled trials concerning LF-PEMFs promoting bone healing published from January 1985 to May 2016. Meta-analysis was conducted on RevMan 5.1 software after data management and quality assessment.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Thirteen eligible literatures were enrolled, involving 1244 patients. Meta-analysis showed that the overall effectiveness and bone mineral density in the LF-PEMFs group were significantly higher than those in the control group. The healing time in the LF-PEMFs group was significantly shorter than that in the control group. These results suggest that LF-PEMFs show high efficacy and safety for bone healing, and also can markedly shorten the healing time. However, more high-quality multi-center, large-scale randomized controlled trials are still needed to testify all above conclusions.