How Light Therapy is surprising skeptics and gaining converts
By Rich Smith
Once he saw the light, a 59-year-old Texan became a changed man. Not emotionally or spiritually, but physically. The man was a patient at Park Cities Physical Therapy in Dallas, suffering from right upper extremity reflex sympathetic dystrophy. A diabetic with heart disease, he’d developed complex regional pain syndrome after a surgical procedure that compromised circulation in his forearm and hand.
Low energy laser therapy has been shown — at appropriate dosimetry, wavelength, duration, and site-specific application — to reduce tissue pain/tenderness, normalize circulation patterns in tissue trauma, and increase collagen formation in wounds.
How laser light helps cells repair themselves CAN gentle doses of laser light help cells to heal? The technique is sometimes used to treat problems such as tinnitus and joint pain, but with no explanation for how these therapies work, there is scepticism over whether the effect is real. Now a physicist has come up with evidence that the physical forces generated by low-energy laser beams may switch on cells' repair mechanisms.
- Sebastian Sun, October 9, 2003 By Rachael Jackson, staff writer
A new cold laser treatment can provide a surgery alternative for sufferers of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, athletic injuries; and other soft and connective tissue disorders. The treatment is painless and non-invasive and, according to MicrolightLaser®, its manufacturer, it can make the difference in full and partial recovery for Carpal Tunnel patients.
- Nata News Magazine, October 2002 Bv Valerie Hunt
Two certified athletic trainers are among a handful of people in the United States comprising an initial group of professionals certified to use a new low-Ievel laser. The device, they say, offers amazing relief for people with carpal tunnel syndrome, and it also represents a wealth of research opportunity.
- Washington Post, February 17, 2004 By Lois Lindstrom
The New England Patriots won Super Bowl XXXVIII with some help from a little-known form of laser technology that could change the way athletic injuries and chronic pain are treated.
Définition: Le syndrome du tunnel carpien est lié à la compression du nerf médian du poignet. Ce nerf est responsable de la sensibilité du pouce et des 2 ou 3 doigts voisins. Il est également le nerf moteur qui commande les muscles à la base du pouce.
Le tunnel carpien, formé par le ligament carpien transverse et les os carpiens. Le «canal carpien» est en fait un tunnel formé en arrière par les 8 petits osselets du poignet, qui ont la forme d’une gouttière ; cette gouttière est fermée en avant par un ligament très épais, le «ligament annulaire antérieur du carpe».
Les résultats de ces changements biochimiques et cellulaires des animaux et des patients incluent des avantages tels que la guérison accrue dans les blessures chroniques, les améliorations dans des dommages de sports et le syndrome de tunnel de carpal, la réduction de douleur de l'arthrite et des neuropathies, et l'amélioration des dommages après les crises cardiaques, la course, les dommages de nerf et la toxicité rétinienne.
Mechanisms of Low Level Light Therapy
HAMBLIN Michael R., Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School and Harvard-MIT
DEMIDOVA Tatiana N., Massachusetts General Hospital and Tufts Univ. School of Medicine
Progress in biomedical optics and imaging, 2006, vol. 7, no26, [Note(s): 614001.1-614001.12]
La thérapie au laser doux s'est révélé être une modalité de traitement non invasive et efficace pour le syndrome du tunnel carpien, en particulier pour les cas mineurs à modérés, quand la douleur est le principal symptôme.
Treatment of carpal tunnel syndrome by low-level laser versus open carpal tunnel release
Elwakil TF, Elazzazi A, Shokeir H.
Unit of General Surgery, National Institute of Laser Enhanced Sciences (NILES), Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt. tfelwakil@hotmail.com
PMID: 17334675 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Lasers Med Sci. 2007 Nov;22(4):265-70. Epub 2007 Mar 3
La photobiomodulation est un traitement conservateur prometteur pour les cas mineur à modéré du syndrome du tunnel carpien. Il est coût-efficace par rapport aux traitements actuels.
Photobiomodulation of pain in carpal tunnel syndrome: review of seven laser therapy studies
Naeser MA.
Department of Neurology, Boston University School of Medicine, MA 02130, USA. mnaeser@bu.edu
En conséquence, nous suggérons que la thérapie au laser doux peut être utilisé comme une bonne méthode alternative de traitement des patients ayant une arthrite rhumatoïde qui souffrent également du syndrome du tunnel carpien.
Effect of low level laser therapy in rheumatoid arthritis patients with carpal tunnel syndrome
Ekim A, Armagan O, Tascioglu F, Oner C, Colak M.
Osmangazi University, Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation, Eskisehir, Turkey.
The Norwegian physiotherapist Jan M Bjordal published his thesis .Low level laser therapy in shoulder tendinitis/bursitis, epicondylalgia and ankle sprain. in 1997, at the Division of Physiotherapy Science, University of Bergen. It has also been published in Physical Therapy Reviews. 1998; 3: 121-132.
