Joe A Shaw PA-C - 2/16/2008

Question
Hello, my name is Sam and I'm an 18 year old female gymnast. This is where most of Orthopedic Sergeons roll their eyes and sigh. To make my story short, I broke my ankle two years ago, returned to practice too soon and ended up favoring the injured leg. So eventually it caugh up with me, as it usually does, and I got a pretty nice fracture in the tibia of the other leg. (By pretty nice I mean it looked like someone took a hatchet to my leg). And on top of that I was in denial about any injury, writing it off as shin splints, and therefore trained on a broke leg for about half a year. After two weeks of complete rest I returned to light activity and after four weeks of light activity my fracture was labled as healing/healed and I was allowed to return to doing whatever didn't hurt.

Anyway, this is where my favorite Orthopedic doctor starts to get very angry. I returned to complete training. I'm graduating school this year and I have many scholarships depending on me competing this season. My shin is still getting better, even with the pounding of landing and jumping. I feel it not hurting as much each week, so if its not getting worse-gymnastics speaking: its getting better.

My question is this. I finally got authorization from my insurance for a bone growth stimulator. How does it work? Can I participate in physical activity if I am having these sessions?

Thank you for your time.

Answer
Sam,
Sounds like your bones have been through a lot for just being 18! In some respects the bone stimulators are considered some what investigational that's why insurance companies make you jump through so many hoops (pun intended)before they want to pay for them ...they have a "success" rate from 60-75%.
This is NOT a substitute for common sense and still treating your fracture appropriately!!(ie DON'T OVER TRAIN)
We don't use them that often and they are used in many cases as kind of a last resort thing when something doesn't seem to be healing well..so the opinion is why not try it and see if it helps.
It is thought to work by creating negative and positive electric charges around the fracture site which causes your bone to make new bone. I wouldn't advise physical activity during a session.
I will attach a link about them that should help you

http://www.aetna.com/cpb/medical/data/300_399/0343.html