A few weeks ago I fell down and fractured my foot. The foot doctor gave me a few options on how to treat it. First of all, he offered to perform surgery to place a pin in the bone. We discussed using a fracture boot or a cast, and how this could affect my lifestyle. We also talked about Exogen bone-healing system, a product that he said could heal my fracture 38-percent faster. I chose not to get surgery, wear a fracture boot instead of a cast and proceed with the Exogen bone-healing system treatments. This article is a review on Exogen and how this exciting product works.
Exogen bone healing system is made by Smith & Nephew. It is an independent company that is not based out of any one doctors office. My doctor had to contact Exogen and send my medical information over. At that point, a representative called to say that she was obtaining insurance approval and would call within a few days. They actually obtained approval from Health Net within a day and called again to set up a meeting. The Exogen representative works out of her home. She offered to come to my house or meet in another location. We agreed on meeting at Starbuck’s so that she could show me how the Exogen bone healing system works.
The Exogen bone healing system is an ultrasound machine a patient can use at home. The daily ultrasound actually stimulates your bone to grow and heal the fracture. With the use of the Exogen machine, you direct the ultrasound waves to the fracture site for 20 minutes each day. The Exogen kit I received contained a foot strap, ultrasound machine, instructions and two large bottles of ultrasound coupling gel.
Here is how to perform an Exogen bone healing treatment:
Place the strap over the bone fracture. In my case the fracture was in my foot, so I just needed to wrap strap around my foot over the bone fracture site. The purpose of the strap is to keep the transducer in place for the 20 minute treatment.
Put gel on transducer and place it in designated hole in strap. The transducer looks like a black circle. This transducer is attached to the ultrasound machine by a cord.
Press the big orange on button. When you do that, electronic display will show 20 minutes. Display will show the time continually counting down. When it is finished, an alarm will go off and machine will stop.
The Exogen bone healing system is very easy to use. It is also a smart machine. If you try to use it without any gel, it will actually tell you with an error code. Each machine is designed for 300-400 treatments. It has an internal battery that will be depleted at that end of that time. Just out of curiosity, I asked my Exogen representative how much they cost without insurance. She said they sell for $2700, but I really feel they are worth the price. Exogen treatments seem to be working well. I have noticed a difference since I began using it. Great product!
