New tool for measuring broken bones may help shorten recovery
Trauma care researchers use grant from Boston Marathon victim's charity
Trauma care researchers use grant from Boston Marathon victim's charity
Trauma care researchers use grant from Boston Marathon victim's charity
Breaking a wrist in a fall is a common injury.
The diagnosis is easy with an X-ray, but the recovery can be complicated and take months. Some patients even require surgery.
"So if we can, you know, find something that gets people back to normal life and back to work sooner, it can be a huge impact," said Dr. Michael Weaver, an orthopedic surgeon at Brigham & Women's Hospital.
In fact, doctors treat nearly 6 million patients with broken bones each year, according to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.
And yet, figuring out how to help them heal faster has been very difficult for a reason that's deceptively simple.
"Right now, we don't have a really good way of measuring how bones heal," Weaver said.
Without accurate measurements, researchers can't test new medicines or treatments to see if they're actually working.
Weaver decided to start work on a solution after receiving a $100,000 grant from the Stepping Strong Fund. The fund is inspired by Gillian Reny, a teenage survivor of the Boston Marathon bombing, and supports research that could improve trauma care and recovery.
Weaver coordinated with researchers from both the Brigham Hospital and Beth-Israel Deaconess Medical Center to create a new tool that measures the flexibility in a bone, showing exactly what happens after it's broken.
"The bone becomes very mobile to less mobile and then finally stiffens up and solidifies together," Weaver explained as he stood next to a prototype of the invention. "And so what we're doing is creating a mechanical device to measure that motion and coupling that with a CT (computerized topography) scan so we can actually watch the bone growing together and healing."
This summer, Weaver and his team hopes to start a clinical trial with patients who've just received a diagnosis confirming that yes, it's broken.
"It's a tremendously difficult experience," Weaver said. "And so if we can make that just a little bit easier, you know, it would have a huge impact."