New guidance from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) supports the use of an ultrasound bone healing device that can replace surgery for patients with ‘problem’ fractures, potentially.
Around 7.5% of fractures do not heal properly, affecting around 50,000 people in the UK and roughly 10,000 undergo complex surgery to fix the bone using a metal plate. This may be combined with harvesting bone from the patient’s pelvis to graft it into the fracture site. The guidance from NICE assessed the effects of a device called the Exogen ultrasound bone healing system, which uses an ultrasound signal to stimulate broken bones to heal naturally. Patients using Exogen place an ultrasound probe on the skin for 20 minutes a day. The treatment is performed at home. The NICE guidance states that the ultrasound bone healing system ‘benefits patients and the NHS when used for treating long bone fractures with non-union (bone fractures that have failed to heal after nine months)’. The guidance adds that treating non-union fractures using the device shows high rates of fracture healing, with an estimated cost saving of £1,164 per patient compared with current management. The device is manufactured by Bioventus LLC and distributed in the UK by Smith & Nephew.
