The purpose of this study was to identify the effect of pulsed electromagnetic fields on the expression of neurotrophic factors after spinal cord injury. Sprague-Dawley male rats were given a spinal cord hemisection and randomly divided into 2 groups, the control and experimental groups. The experimental group was administered a fifteen minutes session of pulsed electromagnetic field once a day, five days a week. In order to observe the effect of these pulsed electromagnetic fields, this study observed the BDNF expression in the rat’s lumbar spinal cord and the H&E staining in the gastrocnemius at 3, 7, 14, 21 days group after spinal cord hemisection. The results of this showed that the immunoreactivity of the BDNF in the rat’s spinal cord gradually increased in each group. At 21 days, there is a significant difference between the control and experimental groups. The morphological shape of the gastrocnemius was gradually changed from 3days to 21days, and the gastrocnemius at 21 days was significantly degraded. However, the experimental group showed a slightly more organized gastrocnemius than the control group at 21days. The Results of this study suggest that pulsed
electromagnetic field application decreases the degeneration of a rat’s gastrocnemius morphology, and increases the immunoreactivity of the BDNF in the rat’s spinal cord after spinal cord hemisection.