Abstract
Introduction. Osteoarthritis is the most common type of arthritis. It is the main cause of chronic musculoskeletal pain and disability among the elderly population. Aim. This is a pilot, randomized clinical study about the effect of high intensity laser therapy in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee (OA of the knee). Material and Method. 72 patients (aged between 39 and 83 years) with (clinically and radiographically proved) OA of the knee were included in the study. They were randomized in two groups: therapeutic (test) one (n = 37, 65,11 ± 1,40 (mean ± SD) years old; patients were treated with HILT) and control group (n = 35, 64,71 ± 1,98; patients receive sham laser). Both groups had seven sessions of treatment. VAS and dolorimetry were used for assessment of pain before and after the therapy. Pedobarometric analysis (static and dynamic) was used to assess comparatively the contact surface area and maximum pressure under the heel. Results. Pain levels measured by VAS and dolorimetry decreased significantly in the therapeutic group after seven days of treatment (p< 0,001). Conclusion. The results after seven days of treatment show more intensive and cumulative effect after the application of high intensity laser therapy in comparison to sham laser. This is the reason why HILT can be a method of choice in the treatment of gonarthrosis.
Highlights
Osteoarthritis is the most common type of arthritis. It is the main cause of chronic musculoskeletal pain and disability among the elderly population [1, 2]
Laser radiation is applied with analgesic parameters on two opposite fields, because, at the selected stages of osteoarthritis of the knee, all intraarticular and periarticular tissues are involved in the process; nociceptive signals are generated by different structures
The dynamic pedobarometric assessment demonstrated decrease of the difference in the contact surface area between the affected and unaffected leg only in the test group. This gives us the confidence to conclude that the balance between the two legs in static position and during walking recovered only in the patients with high intensity laser therapy, leading to better functional improvement [Tables 5 and 6; Figures 5 and 6]
Summary
Osteoarthritis is the most common type of arthritis It is the main cause of chronic musculoskeletal pain and disability among the elderly population [1, 2]. Because of that reason continuous therapy is needed [5, 9] It requires the application of noninvasive treatment methods with proven clinical efficiency. High intensity laser radiation is a relatively new method of application in physical therapy practice, as different mechanisms of action, compared with low intensity laser radiation [10,11,12,13]. It is traditionally applied in surgery for the purpose of destruction of tissues. There are a few clinical trials in patients with different disorders [14,15,16,17,18,19]
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