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Journal of Advanced Research (2012) 3, 109–117

Cairo University

Journal of Advanced Research

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Polarity effect of microcurrent electrical stimulation
on tendon healing: Biomechanical and histopathological
studies

Amal F. Ahmed a,*, Sherein S.A. Elgayed b, Ibrahim M. Ibrahim c

a Basic Sciences Department, Faculty of Physical Therapy, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt
b Pathology Department, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt
c Department of Surgery, Anesthesiology and Radiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt

Received 12 November 2010; revised 3 May 2011; accepted 8 May 2011
Available online 11 June 2011

KEYWORDS Abstract The purpose of the current study was to investigate the effect of microcurrent electrical
stimulation (MES) applied with different polarity on the biomechanical properties of injured
Microcurrent electrical stim- tendons and to correlate results with histopathological studies. Ninety six male white New Zealand
ulation; rabbits were used in the study. Six rabbits were kept as normal group with intact tendons and the
Tendon; remaining 90 rabbits with their right Achilles tendons tenotomized, sutured and immobilized. After
Healing; that rabbits were allocated into equal three groups; cathodal, anodal and control. Each group was
Polarity; further subdivided into three subgroups according to the study period; 3, 5 and 8 weeks. There were
Biomechanical testing significant increases of all biomechanical measurements for cathodal and anodal groups than those
of control group at all study periods. Furthermore there were significant increases of all biomechan-
ical measurements in the cathodal group more than the anodal group at the 3 week period, while
there was significant increase of the anodal group more than the cathodal at 5 and 8 week periods.
The histopathological findings supported the biomechanical results. Tendons in cathode group
showed better healing picture compared to those of anodal group at third week. While tendons
in the anodal group showed better improvement at the 5 and 8 week. MES improved the healing

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +20 123819707; fax: +20 237617692.
E-mail address: amoshfoz88@yahoo.com (A.F. Ahmed).

2090-1232 ª 2011 Cairo University. Production and hosting by
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Peer review under responsibility of Cairo University.
doi:10.1016/j.jare.2011.05.004

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