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Should open excisions and sutured incisions be treated differently? A review and meta-analysis of animal wound models following low-level laser therapy

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Abstract

Although low-level laser therapy (LLLT) was discovered already in the 1960s of the twentieth century, it took almost 40 years to be widely used in clinical dermatology/surgery. It has been demonstrated that LLLT is able to increase collagen production/wound stiffness and/or improve wound contraction. In this review, we investigated whether open and sutured wounds should be treated with different LLLT parameters. A PubMed search was performed to identify controlled studies with LLLT applied to wounded animals (sutured incisions—tensile strength measurement and open excisions—area measurement). Final score random effects meta-analyses were conducted. Nineteen studies were included. The overall result of the tensile strength analysis (eight studies) was significantly in favor of LLLT (SMD = 1.06, 95% CI 0.66–1.46), and better results were seen with 30–79 mW/cm2 infrared laser (SMD = 1.44, 95% CI 0.67–2.21) and 139–281 mW/cm2 red laser (SMD = 1.52, 95% CI 0.54–2.49). The overall result of the wound contraction analysis (11 studies) was significantly in favor of LLLT (SMD = 0.99, 95% CI 0.38–1.59), and the best results were seen with 53–300 mW/cm2 infrared laser (SMD = 1.18, 95% CI 0.41–1.94) and 25–90 mW/cm2 red laser (SMD = 1.6, 95% CI 0.27–2.93). Whereas 1–15 mW/cm2 red laser had a moderately positive effect on sutured wounds, 2–4 mW/cm2 red laser did not accelerate healing of open wounds. LLLT appears effective in the treatment of sutured and open wounds. Statistical heterogeneity indicates that the tensile strength development of sutured wounds is more dependent on laser power density compared to the contraction rate of open wounds.

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Author notes

  1. Peter Gál and Martin Bjørn Stausholm contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedical Research, East-Slovak Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, Inc., Ondavská 8, 040 11, Košice, Slovak Republic

    Peter Gál & Ivan Kováč

  2. Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University, Košice, Slovak Republic

    Peter Gál

  3. Department of Pharmacognosy and Botany, Faculty of Pharmacy, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovak Republic

    Peter Gál

  4. Physiotherapy Research Group, Department of Global Public Health and Primary Care, University of Bergen, Kalfarveien 31, 5018, Bergen, Norway

    Martin Bjørn Stausholm & Jan Magnus Bjordal

  5. Physical and Occupational Therapy Research Unit, Bispebjerg and Frederiksberg University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Martin Bjørn Stausholm

  6. 2nd Department of Surgery, Louise Pasteur University Hospital and Pavol Jozef Šafárik University, Košice, Slovak Republic

    Ivan Kováč

  7. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 1st Private Hospital Kosice-Šaca and Pavol Jozef Šafárik University, Košice-Šaca, Slovak Republic

    Erik Dosedla

  8. Department of Heart Surgery, East-Slovak Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, Inc. and Pavol Jozef Šafárik University, Košice, Slovak Republic

    Ján Luczy & František Sabol

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  1. Peter Gál
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Correspondence to Peter Gál or Jan Magnus Bjordal.

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Gál, P., Stausholm, M.B., Kováč, I. et al. Should open excisions and sutured incisions be treated differently? A review and meta-analysis of animal wound models following low-level laser therapy. Lasers Med Sci 33, 1351–1362 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10103-018-2496-7

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