METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CAPACITIVELY REGENERATING TISSUE AND BONE

A system (10) is disclosed for facilitating the healing of traumatized tissue and broken or fractured bone. The system (10) establishes an electric field between a pair of electrodes (14) positioned on opposite sides of the patient site (12), resulting in the production of an alternating current having the desired frequency and amplitude characteristics in the tissue or bone. Specifically, the system (10) includes a resonator (32) formed by an inductor (36) coupled in series with the resistor (R1) and capacitor (C1) of an equivalent circuit (34) representing the patient site (12), the electrodes (14) , and any gaps (30) therebetween. This resonator (32) also includes a capacitor (C2) designed to prevent spurious, high-frequency oscillations. The resonator (32) is operated by a free-running oscillator (16), which maintains the operationof the resonator (32) at its resonant frequency. The oscillator (16) includes a forward network (38), having a CMOS inverter (42), and a feedback network (40), including an open-loop operational amplifier (52), and provides a simple, stable, and efficient form of operation free from spurious, high-frequency oscillations.