Possible complications of magnetic coil stimulation in living tissue: Assessment of changes in epiphyseal cartilage

To assess the influence of repeated magnetic coil stimulation (MCS) of the peripheral nervous system on epiphyseal cartilage, we evaluated histological and structural changes after repeated MCS applied to the knee joints of young rabbits. There was a slight but significant histological change when repeated MCS at 100% intensity (100% of the maximal output) exceeded 600 times per day. However, we found no gross structural effects on the bone. We conclude that, if these results can be extrapolated to humans, MCS should be safe for stimulating peripheral nervous system for clinical electrophysiologic examinations in children.