The present study examines the usefulness of low level laser therapy (LLLT) given to residents in nursing homes for the elderly. In many cases the elderly have complications brought about by disuse. The disuse syndrome is a general term describing unhealthy symptoms caused by a considerable decrease in activity. The main symptoms include chronic pain, decubitus ulcers, cognitive disorders, deterioration in respiratory and circulatory functions, pneumonia, constipation, urinary tract infections, muscular dystrophy, bone atrophy, and so on. From these symptoms, we confirmed LLLT is effective for decubitus ulcers and improves the patients' quality of life (QOL). However, only 10% of the patients, 2 of the 20 patients we treated, could return to their homes.
Spasticity in cerebral palsy (CP) patients is a critical factor preventing voluntary movement, and can also be associated with involuntary clonus. Low reactive-level laser therapy (LLLT) has been reported as having good overall efficacy in CP patients and also in controlling clonus. The present study was designed to evaluate LLLT in the clinical setting to attenuate spasticity in severely handicapped CP patients. We treated 20 CP patients with near infrared (830 nm) LLLT (16.2 J/cm2/point, once/week over 10 weeks) as a clinical study at our university hospital and a hospital connected with our university. For spasticity of the hip adductor muscle, the obturator nerve was the target for LLLT, and the tibial nerve was irradiated in the case of triceps surae muscle spasticity. LLLT was indicated for the 10 sessions and the degree of attenuation of spasticity was assessed after the final session. Some degree of efficacy and treatment latency was seen in 14 (70%) of the 20 patients, 5 evaluated as excellent, 6 as very good and 3 as fair. Little or no change was seen in the remaining 6 patients, and in no patient did the symptoms worsen. We concluded that LLLT was an efficacious treatment option in the conservative treatment of CP patients, that it was easilyapplied, non-invasive and pain-free, and that it did not have any adverse side effects.
In 1998, we (1) carried out a random double blind controlled study with chronic pain patients using a 1 Watt Semiconductor Laser Device. This was the first device of it's kind in Japan. We had significant Evidence Based Medicine (EBM), therefore we reported to the Ministry of Health and Welfare in Japan. Mochida Siemens Medical Systems Co., Ltd. then obtained a license to sell the device. In February, 2007, a 10 Watt Semiconductor Pulse Laser Device was brought to market as an improved version of the 1 Watt Semiconductor Laser Device. Two doctors, Shigeru Saeki and Setsuro Ogawa (2) reported the results of chronic pain patient's medical treatments using this new device with results including 79% of effectiveness. We also used this new device (fig. 1) to treat 50 chronic pain cases recently. From those cases, we will report 5 with noticeable effects. Materials and Methods Materials: 5 cases out of 50 chronic pain patients who visited our rehabilitation department at Toho University Hospital. We received informed consent from all patients before we carried out Low Level Laser Therapy (LLLT). Treatment period was 4 months, from February to May, 2007. The laser irradiation regions were chronic pain regions or tender points. Irradiation time was 30 seconds each part, 6 regions total (3 minutes) every time.
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