ABSTRACT
The development of electrical and electromagnetic technologies for use in orthopaedics is based on the discovery of the electrical properties of bone tissue in the 1950s and 1960s. The first report by Fukada and Yasuda on bone piezoelectric properties appeared in 1954 (1). These investigators measured an electric potential upon deformation of dry bone and compared this effect to electret material. Following up on these important results was the work of Andy Bassett’s group at Columbia University and Carl Brighton’s group at the University of Pennsylvania, among others, who both reported the generation of electrical potentials in wet bone upon mechanical deformation (2-5). These observations were then extended to other tissues including collagen and cartilaginous tissues subject to mechanical deformation (6-8).
