LASER THERAPY

This paper from Michael Hamblin, PhD Harvard describes how it works in great detail.  LASER in the treatment of pain: Acute orthopedic conditions such as sprains [53,54], strains, post-surgical pain, a whiplash injury [54], muscular back pain, cervical or lumbar radiculopathy [55,56], tendinitis [57,58] and chronic conditions such as osteoarthritis [59–64], rheumatoid arthritis, frozen shoulder [65], neck and back pain [56], epicondylitis [66], carpal tunnel syndrome [67,68], tendinopathy [69], fibromyalgia [70], plantar fasciitis [70], post tibial fracture surgery [9] and chronic regional pain syndrome are amenable to LASER therapy. References in this link.

Orthopedic outcomes:  According to the more than 4000 studies on pub.med.gov, it can be concluded that the majority of laboratory and clinical studies have demonstrated that Laser(LLLT and HILT) has a positive effect on acute and chronic musculoskeletal pain. The overall positive short term clinical studies in addition to strong laboratory studies should give the clinical confidence that Laser may be beneficial for many individuals suffering from musculoskeletal pain, regardless of the cause. 

• Tendon Pain:  From the American Journal of Sports Medicine-Chronic Achilles Tendinopathy- Excellent results speeding up the recovery from 12 weeks down to 4 weeks. Used with eccentric exercise vs placebo laser and eccentric exercise.

• Myofasical Pain: The literature reports greater efficacy of laser over dry needling

• Shoulder Pain: Subacromial impingement syndrome; SAPS; 

• Plantar Fasciitis Ultrasound Study; Chronic Plantar Fasciitis 2x’s week for 3 weeks. 1 year follow up had awesome results with pain scores. 

• Low Back Pain: HILT combined with exercise appears to be more effective in patients with CLBP than either HILT alone or placebo laser with exercise; Laser makes the list for the American College of Physicians evidence based clinical practice guidelines for low back pain; Comparison between Epidural Block vs. High Intensity Laser Therapy for Controlling Chronic Low Back Pain

• Chronic Neck Pain: The combination of HILT + EX effectively increased cervical ROM, functional activity, and reduced pain after 6 weeks of treatment.  Cervical Spine Spondylosis(Arthritis) 

• Knee OA: The results demonstrated strong immediate, cumulative, and long lasting (for three months) effect of high intensity laser therapy on pain in knee osteoarthritis, which gives indication that high intensity laser therapy could be a promising new possibility in the treatment of osteoarthritis of knee; HILT more effective than LLLT for KOA

• Bone Healing:  Fracture healing: Laser relieved pain and improve the healing process of CBFs in the human wrist and Animal research. Animal study=no placebo bone stimulator + laser is best. Tibial Fracture.  

• Nerve Healing: 9 sessions over 3 weeks speeds nerve regeneration in this study.