ADVERTISING: Advertorial — Laser therapy improves joint replacement rehabilitation

With more and more people having joint replacement surgeries today, we need a new way to speed up healing, reduce scarring, pain and inflammation. A modality that has been shown to have no negative side effects like pain medication. Luckily we have such a modality that is called low level light therapy or cold laser therapy. A clinical trial was conducted in 2018 to test whether regular treatments of low level light therapy would result in any positive effect in pain or inflammation levels post-surgery. The results were amazing.

Post-operative recovery from total replacement surgery can be extensive. The trauma to the tissue usually causes inflammation and a natural immune response can give the patient post-operative pain that peaks during the first few days following surgery. Thus requiring pain medication.

This study used only eighteen patients, all of whom had received the same surgical hip procedure by the same surgeon. The study was to see whether the post-operative pain experienced would decrease with the use of low level light therapy treatments administered several times a day to the surgical incisions and problem areas on the hip area.

The results from this study found that low level light therapy is a safe and effective way to treat the post-operative side effects that are encountered after having surgery. There was a significant decrease in the pain intensity experienced after receiving regular treatments from an LLLT device as well as a reduction in inflammation in those areas. The correlation between using this form of therapy during the surgical recovery period and the decrease in pain and inflammation was found to be very favorable. The results provided enough evidence to recognize that after application of laser therapy, acute symptoms subsided enough that it was possible to decrease the number of analgesic drugs that the patient received.

Another double-blinded randomized, placebo-controlled trial was performed on 54 patients following total knee replacement. The trial showed that post-operative low-level laser therapy improved early post-operative pain, post-operative ROM both in active knee flexion and extension. It showed beneficially therapeutic effects in terms of pain control and knee function after total knee replacement, without side effects.

Low level light therapy works by exposing cells and tissues to near-infrared light. When the laser is placed over the skin's surface where the incision is located, it can promote regeneration of tissue and starts a healing process within the cells. Inflamed or damaged cells below the skin's surface absorb this light energy and convert it to cellular energy which it uses to repair the damaged tissue. Not only can this form of therapy help reduce pain and inflammation, but it can also decrease recovery time by speeding up wound healing. Pain and inflammation are common side-effects for people who have recently received a joint replacement procedure.

So here is a treatment that speeds up healing, reduces pain and has no side effects. If you're going through a replacement surgery or any surgery for that matter, give it a try.

• • •

Dr. Wayne M. Fichter Jr. is a chiropractor at Natural Spine Solutions. The business is located at 3913 Schreiber Way in Coeur d’Alene. For more information, please contact us at 208-966-4425.