THE ANALGESIC EFFECT OF 904 nm GALLIUM ARSENIDE SEMICONDUCTOR LOW LEVEL LASER THERAPY (LLLT) ON OSTEOARTICULAR PAIN: A REPORT ON 938 IRRADIATED PATIENTS

Abstract

In order to investigate the efficacy of LLLT with the gallium arsenide (GaAs) semiconductor laser in the therapy of acute and chronic osteoarticular pain, the author presents an analysis of 938 irradiated patients. The GaAs laser equipment used has a wavelength of 904 nm. The laser is pulsed, pulse width of 200 nsec, pulse frequency 10,000 Hz, a peak power of 20 W and an average power of 40 mW. The patients were treated five times a week on several points with doses of 6-10 J/cm2 on each point in the painful area or areas. The efficacy of the laser treatment at the end of 10 sessions was evaluated using a colour scale with a four grade estimation: excellent, good, little or no effect and poor. Laser efficacy was arrived at by combining the excellent and good responses. The overall effectiveness was 74.73%, but considering acute pain it was elevated to 88.20%, and in chronic pain it was 69.27%. In some specific locations such as acute cervical pain, acute lumbar pain and tenosynovitis the major statistical effectiveness was achieved (100%, 88.46% and 84%, respectively). In chronic knee and hip pain the response was poor (38.23% and 35.71%, respectively). These results suggest that GaAs laser therapy at the parameters as reported is an effective, easy to apply and side effect free treatment for osteoarticular pain. From the reported data, the efficacy of 904 nm GaAs LLLT is greater in acute pain therapy compared with chronic pain types, and some anatomical areas tend to respond better to GaAs diode LLLT than others.