CLINICAL TRIAL OF LOW REACTIVE-LEVEL LASER THERAPY IN 20 PATIENTS WITH POSTHERPETIC NEURALGIA

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With the gradual increase in standard of Living and environmental factors conducive To life, world life expectancy is increasing. adding a large percentage to the population over the age of 60. The incidence of shingles and its painful aftermath, postherpetic neuralgia. or PHN, is also showing a steep rise. The present study set eut to cva:uate the application of low reactive-level laser therapy. or LLLT. for a small patient population who had received other conventional therapies but with no success. The LLLT system used was a gallium aluminium arsenide (GaAlAs) diode laser LLLT system. with an output power of 60 mW in continuous wave at 830nm. It is designed for contact application. The study population consisted of 20 patients, with a mean age of 68.3 (male) and 57.5 (female). The mean duration of PHN was 11.8 months, Twelve of the 20 patients respended to the LLLT, 60%. Further studies are needed. with emphasis on methodology. as these figures are not as high as those from other workers in this field, The success rate was high enough however to make the authors consider a larger programme in the future, including double-blind and crossover components. The GaAlAs diode laser in contaet LLLT certainly provides a new noninvasive and easily applied therapy for PHN.