Efficacy of Low-Level Laser Therapy in The Management of Neck Pain: Systematic Review
Low-Level Laser Therapy in Neck Pain
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55735/hjprs.v2i4.97Keywords:
Chronic Neck Pain, Cervical Range of Motion, Low Level Laser Therapy, Neck Disability Scale, Visual Analog ScaleAbstract
Background: Laser therapy is an effective therapeutic option that has helped patients with both acute and chronic neuropathies. Low-level laser therapy provides effective short-term pain relief and improvement in cervical range of motion in participants with neck pain. Objective: To explore the evidence related to the efficacy of low-level laser therapy in patients with neck pain. Methods: This systematic review comprised randomized controlled trials in which pain and range of motion were the outcomes investigated. The PEDro scale was then used to assess the quality of the studies involved. Studies from Google Scholar, PubMed, the HEC Digital Library, PEDro and the Cochrane Library were included in this review. Only randomized trials and English-language papers involved people over the age of 18 with neck discomfort and both genders. The population with psychiatric illnesses and traumatic traumas who were less than 18 years old included observational studies, copyright issues and paper in other languages.26 A PRISMA flowchart was also used to demonstrate the entire process of adding and removing articles from review. Results: PEDro scale was used to assess the quality of studies as shown in Table I, showed that all the studies are of high quality. The following variables were collected for each study: general patient information such as mean age, mean duration, percentages of male and female in sample size, country of study, year of study publication, name of first author, sample size and outcome measure (Table II). Studies revealed that laser therapy is found to be statistically significant in treating neck pain, neck range of motion and disability when compared to placebo therapy. Conclusion: This study found that laser therapy decreases pain in participants with persistent neck discomfort shortly after therapy. Laser therapy is proven to be more effective than placebo therapy in relieving arm pain and improving cervical strength and flexibility in participants with severe pain and increasing the quality of life when compared to patients treated with a placebo laser therapy.
References
Bier JD, Scholten-Peeters WG, Staal JB, Pool J, van Tulder MW, Beekman E, et al. Clinical practice guideline for physical therapy assessment and treatment in patients with nonspecific neck pain. Physical therapy. 2018;98(3):162-71.
Akhter S, Khan M, Ali SS, Soomro RR. Role of manual therapy with exercise regime versus exercise regime alone in the management of non-specific chronic neck pain. Pakistan journal of pharmaceutical sciences. 2014;27.
Binder AI. Cervical spondylosis and neck pain. Bmj. 2007;334(7592):527-31.
Konstantinovic LM, Cutovic MR, Milovanovic AN, Jovic SJ, Dragin AS, Letic MD, et al. Low-level laser therapy for acute neck pain with radiculopathy: a double-blind placebo-controlled randomized study. Pain Medicine. 2010;11(8):1169-78.
Da Costa BR, Vieira ER. Risk factors for work‐related musculoskeletal disorders: a systematic review of recent longitudinal studies. American journal of industrial medicine. 2010;53(3):285-323.
Braun J, Baraliakos X. Active and chronic sacroiliitis, spondylitis and enthesitis, how specific are imaging findings for axial spondyloarthritis? : Oxford University Press; 2019.
Vingård E. Chapter 5.6: Major public health problems—musculoskeletal disorders. Scandinavian journal of public health. 2006;34(67_suppl):104-12.
Genebra CVDS, Maciel NM, Bento TPF, Simeão SFAP, De Vitta A. Prevalence and factors associated with neck pain: a population-based study. Brazilian journal of physical therapy. 2017;21(4):274-80.
Cimmino MA, Ferrone C, Cutolo M. Epidemiology of chronic musculoskeletal pain. Best practice & research Clinical rheumatology. 2011;25(2):173-83.
Yue P, Liu F, Li L. Neck/shoulder pain and low back pain among school teachers in China, prevalence and risk factors. BMC public health. 2012;12(1):1-8.
Hush JM, Michaleff Z, Maher CG, Refshauge K. Individual, physical and psychological risk factors for neck pain in Australian office workers: a 1-year longitudinal study. European spine journal. 2009;18(10):1532-40.
Damgaard P, Bartels EM, Ris I, Christensen R, Juul-Kristensen B. Evidence of physiotherapy interventions for patients with chronic neck pain: a systematic review of randomised controlled trials. International Scholarly Research Notices. 2013;2013.
Schomacher J, Falla D. Function and structure of the deep cervical extensor muscles in patients with neck pain. Manual therapy. 2013;18(5):360-6.
Guzman J. Neck pain and low-level laser: does it work and how? Lancet (London, England). 2009;374(9705):1875-6.
Hoy D, Protani M, De R, Buchbinder R. The epidemiology of neck pain. Best practice & research Clinical rheumatology. 2010;24(6):783-92.
Chow RT, Barnsley L. Systematic review of the literature of low‐level laser therapy (LLLT) in the management of neck pain. Lasers in Surgery and Medicine: The Official Journal of the American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery. 2005;37(1):46-52.
Hurwitz EL, Randhawa K, Yu H, Côté P, Haldeman S. The Global Spine Care Initiative: a summary of the global burden of low back and neck pain studies. European Spine Journal. 2018;27(6):796-801.
Hsieh R-L, Lee W-C. Short-term therapeutic effects of 890-nanometer light therapy for chronic low back pain: a double-blind randomized placebo-controlled study. Lasers in medical science. 2014;29(2):671-9.
Cotler HB, Chow RT, Hamblin MR, Carroll J. The Use of Low Level Laser Therapy (LLLT) For Musculoskeletal Pain. MOJ Orthop Rheumatol. 2015;2(5).
Bashiri H. Evaluation of low level laser therapy in reducing diabetic polyneuropathy related pain and sensorimotor disorders. Acta medica Iranica. 2013;51(8):543-7.
Yang H, Hitchcock E, Haldeman S, Swanson N, Lu ML, Choi B, et al. Workplace psychosocial and organizational factors for neck pain in workers in the United States. American journal of industrial medicine. 2016;59(7):549-60.
Elbinoune I, Amine B, Shyen S, Gueddari S, Abouqal R, Hajjaj-Hassouni N. Chronic neck pain and anxiety-depression: prevalence and associated risk factors. Pan African Medical Journal. 2016;24(1).
Bot SD, Bouter LM. The efficacy of low level laser therapy for chronic neck pain. LWW; 2006.
Chow RT, Heller GZ, Barnsley L. The effect of 300 mW, 830 nm laser on chronic neck pain: a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study. Pain. 2006;124(1-2):201-10.
Chow RT, Johnson MI, Lopes-Martins RA, Bjordal JM. Efficacy of low-level laser therapy in the management of neck pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised placebo or active-treatment controlled trials. The Lancet. 2009;374(9705):1897-908.
Gur A, Sarac AJ, Cevik R, Altindag O, Sarac S. Efficacy of 904 nm gallium arsenide low level laser therapy in the management of chronic myofascial pain in the neck: A double‐blind and randomize‐controlled trial. Lasers in surgery and medicine. 2004;35(3):229-35.
Alayat MS, Elsoudany AM, Ali ME. Efficacy of multiwave locked system laser on pain and function in patients with chronic neck pain: a randomized placebo-controlled trial. Photomedicine and laser surgery. 2017;35(8):450-5.
Donabedian A. The methods and findings of quality assessment and monitoring: an illustrated analysis. The Journal for Healthcare Quality (JHQ). 1985;7(3):15.
Jüni P, Altman DG, Egger M. Assessing the quality of controlled clinical trials. Bmj. 2001;323(7303):42-6.
Macedo LG, Elkins MR, Maher CG, Moseley AM, Herbert RD, Sherrington C. There was evidence of convergent and construct validity of Physiotherapy Evidence Database quality scale for physiotherapy trials. Journal of clinical epidemiology. 2010;63(8):920-5.
Herbert R, Moseley A, Sherrington C. PEDro: a database of randomised controlled trials in physiotherapy. Health Information Management. 1998;28(4):186-8.
Bhogal SK, Teasell RW, Foley NC, Speechley MR. The PEDro scale provides a more comprehensive measure of methodological quality than the Jadad scale in stroke rehabilitation literature. Journal of clinical epidemiology. 2005;58(7):668-73.
Waseem I, Tanveer F, Fatima A. Can addition of low level laser therapy to conventional physical therapy be beneficial for management of pain and cervical range of motion in patients with trigger point of upper trapezius? Anaesthesia, Pain & Intensive Care. 2020;24(1):64-8.
Maloney R, Shanks S. Evaluation of low-level laser therapy at 635nm for the treatment of acute and chronic neck and shoulder pain: A placebo-controlled, randomized study. Lasers in surgery and medicine. 2014;46(S25):1-81.
Kohli JK, Thukral H. A study on relationship between neck pain and handgrip strength in dentists as an occupational hazard. Age (Years). 2018;23(1.51):23-1.9.
Stecco A, Meneghini A, Stern R, Stecco C, Imamura M. Ultrasonography in myofascial neck pain: randomized clinical trial for diagnosis and follow-up. Surgical and Radiologic Anatomy. 2014;36(3):243-53.
Dorsher PT. Can classical acupuncture points and trigger points be compared in the treatment of pain disorders? Birch's analysis revisited. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. 2008;14(4):353-9.
Alfredo PP, Bjordal JM, Dreyer SH, Meneses SRF, Zaguetti G, Ovanessian V, et al. Efficacy of low level laser therapy associated with exercises in knee osteoarthritis: a randomized double-blind study. Clinical rehabilitation. 2012;26(6):523-33.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
License
Copyright (c) 2022 The Healer Journal of Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation Sciences
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
CC BY
