Successful treatment of diabetic foot ulcers with low-level laser therapy

Abstract

Introduction Diabetic foot ulcers, being notoriously difficult to cure, are one of the most common health problems in diabetic patients. There are several surgical and medical options already introduced for treatment of diabetic foot ulcers. Low-level laser therapy (LLLT) has been suggested as a promising treatment option for open wounds. However, there is very little work on the efficacy of low-level laser therapy for this type of open wounds. We report herein seven cases of grades II and III diabetic foot ulcer completely treated with LLLT. Materials and methods Seven Type 2 diabetic patients (four males: mean age, 63 years; three females: mean age, 61.14 years) with grades II and III diabetic foot ulcers were treated with low-level laser therapy. The mean duration of diabetes was 10.5 years and the ulcers were present from average 6.5 months ago. The mean value for glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1C) also was 8.14 mg/dl (range: 6–12.2) and foot blood flow in Doppler ultra-sonography were normal. We used low-level laser therapy through local irradiation of the ulcer bed with red light (660 nm; power: 25 MW; 0.6–1 J/cm 2) and ulcer margins with infrared laser (980 nm; power: 200 MW; 4–6 J/cm 2), along with intravenous laser irradiation with red light laser (650 nm; power: 1.5 MW) for 15–20 min, in addition to laser acupuncture with infrared laser (1 J/cm 2) for LI-11, LI-6, SP-6, PC-6, ST-36 and GB-34 points. Sessions were every other day for 10–15 sessions (Route 1) and then continuing the course twice weekly (Route 2) until complete recovery was achieved. Results After approximately 19 sessions (mean Route 1 sessions ≈15; mean Route 2 sessions ≈10), complete recovery was achieved in all cases and there was no relapse or other problem with ulcers after approximately 6 months (range: 2–10 months) of follow-up. With this treatment regimen, there were no side-effects reported by the patients. Conclusion Low-level laser therapy could be a safe and effective method for treatment of diabetic foot ulcers. Clinical trials with higher sample size are proposed to more evaluate the efficacy of low-level laser therapy in treatment of this type of wounds.