Low Level Laser Therapy Arthritis

Laser Therapy has been successfully used to treat a broad range of medical conditions, including musculoskeletal problems, arthritis, sports injuries, post-surgical wounds, diabetic ulcers and dermatological conditions.

① Improving the blood circulation

Laser directly irradiates on the lesionpart which blood flow is decreased or irradiates the sympathetic ganglion which dominates this range. It could supply sufficient blood and nutrition in order to improve the metabolism and relieve symptom.

② Diminishing the inflammation quickly

Laser irradiates the lesion area to enhance the activity of phagocyte and improve the immunity and diminish the inflammation quickly.

③Relieving the pain

The injured part could release the substance after laser irradiation. Laser irradiation also could reduce the conduction rate, power and impulse frequency to relieve the pain quickly.

④ Accelerating the tissue repair

Laser irradiation can accelerate the growth of new blood vessel and granulation tissue and improve protein-synthesis. Blood capillary is one of the basic elements of granulation tissue, which is the precondition of wound healing. Organizing much more oxygen supply to damaged tissue cells and accelerates the production of collagen fibers, deposition and cross-linking.

Most U.S. doctors and physical therapists do not believe that low-level laser exposure can speed wound healing. Nonetheless, laser treatment is possible, and there is a wealth of experimental evidence supporting this laser product.

Most studies in rabbits and rodents have reported significant improvements in wound healing (especially in the early stages) after laser treatment. In human studies, some evaluations of cervical erosion wound healing10 as well as various skin ulcers have reported significant results. However, these studies are often uncontrolled or incompletely described. Additionally, other experiments involving pigs with skin wounds showed no benefit from laser treatment.

Species-specific effects may be important. In particular, in pig and human skin, wound contraction is much less important for healing than in rodents and other animals with loose skin. Other similarities between pig and human body skin include skin thickness and turnover time. Therefore, perhaps species-specific effects are important and potentially unresponsive pigs may prove to be a better model than rabbits and rodents for predicting outcomes in humans.

It is important to remember that the literature on low-energy laser research is patchy and disorganized. Future work may show that what are now apparently conflicting outcomes are actually different sides of the same problem. For example, it is plausible that different tissues with different absorption spectra might respond differently to different stimulation frequencies. Additionally, differences in energy dose, treatment technique (e.g., irradiation of a single spot or sweep), and treatment protocols may be significant enough to complicate evaluation.

side effect

Aside from prolonged direct eye exposure to the laser beam, the safety of these low-energy devices does not appear to be a major concern. Although safety concerns have been raised, 8 higher energy lasers have been used for many years with few side effects.