EAST STROUDSBURG - Charles K. Herman, M.D., F.A.C.S., Medical Director of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Pocono Health System recently co-authored one of the first comprehensive review articles that describes the use of magnetic fields in healing.  The article was published in this month’s Aesthetic Surgery Journal, the official journal of the American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons. 

The article is titled “Evidence-Based Use of Pulsed Electromagnetic Field Therapy in Clinical Plastic Surgery.”  Dr. Berish Strauch, Emeritus Chair of Plastic Surgery at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Dr. Arthur Pilla from Columbia University, Nobel Laureate Dr. Louis Ignarro, and Dr. Richard Dabb of John Hopkins University joined Dr. Herman in authoring this article.  Dr. Herman is one of the first physicians to implement the technology available for electromagnetic field therapy and began using it at Pocono Medical Center three years ago to assist in healing difficult chronic wounds.

The development of the pulsed electromagnetic field also known as PEMF therapy and its use in clinical surgery has been slow due to the lack of evidence-based knowledge on the mechanism of action.  To author the article, Dr. Herman and the contributing physicians assessed the major scientific breakthroughs and current understanding of PEMF therapy.  Through their research, they concluded that PEMF therapy has been used successfully in the management of postsurgical pain and edema and in the treatment of various chronic wounds.