The effects of low intensity pulsed ultrasound on repair of articular cartilage injury in rabbits / 中华物理医学与康复杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the effects of low intensity pulsed ultrasound ( LIPU ) on articular car-tilage injury in rabbits. Methods Ten adult New Zealand white rabbits with bilateral, full-thickness osteochondral defects in the cartilage surfaces of intercondylar fossas were used as model. The left knees in these rabbits treated with LIPU were used as experimental group. The right knees treated with sham intervention were used as controls. All the rabbits were sacrificed at the 8th week postoperation for gross appearance grading, histological grading and semi-quan-titation of proteoglycan in the repairing tissue. Results Compared with controls, defects treated with LIPU im-proved significantly as shown by gross appearance grades, histological grades and optical density of toluidine blue at the 8th week postoperation (both P <0.05). Conclusion LIPU could accelerate repairing of articular cartilage in-jury.