The Efficacy of Laser Therapy for Rotator Cuff Tendinopathy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Multiple rehabilitations modalities exist to treat RC tendinopathy, such as exercise, manual therapy, or electrotherapy. For many of these interventions commonly used in clinics, evidence regarding their efficacy or the magnitude of treatment effects that may be expected is scarce [7]. Laser therapy (LT) is an electrotherapy modality that has been used for decades by physiotherapists despite scarce evidence regarding its efficacy. Based on indirect evidence from animal tendon studies, LT is believed to decrease inflammation, increase angiogenesis, increase fibroblast activity leading to increased collagen production, increase tensile strength and decrease pain [8,9]. A recent review of systematic reviews was published on the effectiveness of conservative interventions for adults with RC tendinopathy, including LT. The authors concluded that the evidence did not support the effectiveness of LT compared to other interventions [10]. However, this review did not include all the available evidence on the efficacy of LT modality in individuals suffering from RC tendinopathy and its conclusions were only qualitative as it was based on previous systematic reviews evaluating evidence published until 2008. Another systematic review on the efficacy of LT for all types of tendinopathies, that included 3 RCTs specific to RC tendinopathy was recently published and concluded