The present study introduces a novel method for assessing the efficacy of so-called soft tissue lasers on the peripheral and central nervous systems. In any readily available method relying on low energy laser irradiation, one of the most critical factors is obviously the wavelength of the laser, for this will determine how much of the energy applied to the skin or muscle actually reaches the target nerve. The present findings reaffirm our conclusion that low energy laser irradiation is bene-ficial in the treatment of injured peripheral or central nervous system, the beneficial effect diminishing with decreasing wavelength from 632nm down to 465nm. Our results pave the way for a new approach to the treatment of traumatic paraplegia and argue in favor of a combination of laser irradiation and PNS or CNS transplantation for the treatment of spinal cord injury.

Date Published: 15 June 1988
PDF: 7 pages
Proc. SPIE 0907, Laser Surgery: Characterization and Therapeutics, (15 June 1988); doi: 10.1117/12.945324

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 0907:
Laser Surgery: Characterization and Therapeutics
Kazuhiko Atsumi M.D.; Stephen N. Joffe M.D., Editor(s)