Assessment of the effect of pulsed electromagnetic field therapy in the treatment of chronic wounds

Background: Recent innovations, such as hydrosurgery, ultrasound therapy, and plasma-mediated bipolar radio-frequency ablation therapy could represent an alternative to conventional debridement in many cases, especially for chronic non-healing wounds. Pulsed electromagnetic field (PEMF) has been used clinically as an intervention to enhance healing of chronic infected wound. The aim is to evaluate the effect of PEMF therapy on healing of chronic wounds, as regard timing and quality of healing. Methods: Fifty cases with chronic wounds, according to inclusion and exclusion criteria, the patient's age ranged from 20-70 years, from outpatient clinic of military or transferred through civilian outpatient's clinic in different hospitals and specific diabetic foot centers. They are diagnosed as infected resistant chronic wounds depending on clinical, laboratory and radiological investigations due to various reasons will be managed by PEMF therapy. Results: There were statistically significant associations between treatment outcomes and pain (p =0.018), edema (p =0.005), number of sessions (p <0.001), microbial eradication (p =0.008). On the other hand, we found that there were statistically significant associations between complication rates and treatment outcome (p=0.008), microbial eradication (p <0.001), and hospital stay (p =0.002). Conclusion: the PEMF therapy is a safe and effective treatment option for patients with chronic, resistant, wounds. The current study shows that the PEFM achieved a high success rate. In addition, our analysis showed that achieving complete closure of the wound can be associated with significant symptomatic relief and few incidences of complications. Nevertheless, further studies are still needed to confirm our findings.