Nd:YAG laser in the management of low back pain

Vervainioti A.
Energy for Health [12]. 2014

It is well established that low back pain is a common musculoskeletal disorder in adult population and has high social-economic impact. Among therapeutic methods we chose to test those suggested by international literature as effective, such as high intensity laser therapy, versus standard physiotherapy protocol (ultrasound, T.E.N.S., massage, mobilization and exercises). We designed a trial with three therapy groups. The main objective was to compare the efficacy of a specific Nd:YAG laser (HILT) with a standard physiotherapy protocol on low back pain and a combination of the two methods. It was within the scope of this paper to address in detail the variation of pain through pain type and localization for low back pain patients. Analyses showed that a significant number of patients with acute pain gained full recovery (28,8%), while patients affected by chronic pain obtained a significant improvement (31,1%) of pain symptoms, but not healing. Focal pain was healed more effectively than widespread pain. Final assessment showed that standardized physiotherapy (group A) did not manage to bring full recovery to patients, but just improving. Hilterapia^® (group C) had better results in comparison with the standardized physioterapeutic approach and showed early analgesic effects. Patients treated with both HILT and standardized physiotherapy showed the higher clinical-functional improvement (group B), when compared with the other groups of patients. The results showed that a therapeutical protocol based on the combination of HILT and standardized physiotherapy may be successfully used to obtain improvement of pain symptoms and early healing in patients with non-specific pain of the lumbar area.