ELECTROLYSIS CONTROLLING FACTOR IN THE USE OF METALS IN TREATING FRACTURES

Abstract

The use of metals in direct fixation of fractures is a very old procedure. There have been many disappointments and numerous investigations in the effort to find the reasons for the inconsistency of the end results. The factor of electrolysis in bone surgery was but vaguely suggested¹ until we undertook our experiments in 1936.² We undertook to ascertain whether electrolysis was demonstrable, what its effects were on bone and soft tissue, the clinical applications of this principle and finally, through clinical experience, the importance of electrolysis in the direct splinting of fractures with metals. The initial reports of our experiments were presented before the Texas Surgical Society (October 1936) and the Southern Surgical Association (December 1936) and later published.² The results of further experiments, demonstrating the presence of electric current in vivo when contacts were made with metals in the bone and the early clinical applications of