Electrical Stimulation and Spinal Fusion

The earliest reported use of electrical stimulation to improve the efficacy of spinal fusion was over a quarter of a century ago. At that time, Dwyer et al. were the first to show that adjunctive electrical stimulation improved the fusion rate of a diagnostically varied group of patients undergoing both anterior and posterior spinal fusion. Over the next decade, only two additional studies examining the effects of electrical stimulation on spinal fusion were published. Neither of these studies, which were presented at scientific meetings, were ever published beyond their abstract form. Both reported improved posterior fusion success utilizing implantable direct current electrical stimulation. However, by 1985, increasing interest in the use of electrical stimulation to improve spinal fusion outcomes resulted in a continually growing number of clinical and basic science studies that have validated the clinical and scientific utility of electrical stimulation to enhance the success of spinal fusion.