DOSIMETRY-RELATED WOUND HEALING RESPONSE IN THE RAT MODEL FOLLOWING HELIUM NEON LASER LLLT

抄録

We report on a controlled investigation into the accelerated healing of artificial wounds in the Sprague-Dawley rat treated with helium neon (HeNe) laser irradiation over a range of doses up to 60 J/cm². With a treatment schedule of 3 or 5 treatments per week, an acceleration of approximately 27% in healing time and 49% in wound size reduction were seen in wounds of 1.26 cm² in area inflicted on 27 week-old rats at a dose of 25 J/cm² compared with unirradiated control animals. Smaller wounds (0.39 cm²) in younger animals (< 12 weeks old) demonstrated time and wound reduction improvement of approximately 33% and 54% respectively, compared with controls. A statistically significant difference (student’s t-test) was seen in this group of animals treated with 7J/cm² compared with unirradiated control animals. Wound acceleration was seen to be dose-dependent, increasing up to the optimum value, whereafter the stimulatory effect was observed to decrease (maximum dose of 60 J/cm²). Investigations into the treatment schedule revealed saturation after 6 treatments per week. Skin reflection was investigated, and losses of around 74% were observed, requiring higher doses to achieve an effective result. Varying the power density (3.7 - 15.9 mW/cm²) while keeping the dose constant had no statistically significant effect on the result.