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Fracture Putty Can Heal a Broken Bone In Days
An anonymous reader writes "If we break a bone it can take weeks or even month to heal depending on the type and severity of the break. In some extreme cases the complexity of the fracture can make it impossible to heal properly. Researchers at the University of Georgia Regenerative Bioscience Center have come up with a new solution for healing broken bones that cuts recovery time to days. It relies on the use of stem cells that contain a bone generating protein. These cells are injected in gel form directly into the area of the broken bone, where they quickly get to work forming new bone. The end result is very rapid recovery, possibly sidestepping the muscle atrophy that can come with long bone healing times. The gel has been proven to work on animals as big as a sheep and has funding from the DoD. Lets hope it is proven to work on humans in the coming years."
I had my ankle fused recently and part of the procedure was some kind of putty that they infused with a small sample of marrow they scraped from right below my knee. My recovery was about a month, but it worked remarkably well. I am not sure how that compares to the procedure in this article, but it is not hard to harvest the needed stem cells from the patient themselves.
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