Laser therapy in the treatment
protocol of rehabilitation may include several clinical and technical factors
peculiar to geriatric patients.
Since it may be that the
efficacy of laser treatment is connected to clinical conditions of the
patient and to physical parameters of the treatment, we planned a revision
of the results we have obtained in our Institute in the therapy of patients
suffering from different diseases peculiar in elderly people (i.e. osteoarthritis
of spine and knee and reflex sympathetic distrophy syndrome in hemiplegic
patients).
Our trial was carried out
on 485 patients mostly admitted to Geriatric Institute Pio Albergo Trivulzio.
The laser apparatuses utilized are CO2 (l=10600 nm), HeNe (l=632.8 nm)
and GaAs (l=904 nm).
On the basis of the results
obtained we observe that different laser apparatuses present a different
efficacy when utilized for therapy in some osteoarticular painful diseases
in geriatric patients and we note that the GaAs laser may be much more
effective than HeNe for therapy of osteoarthritis.
About laser therapy in reflex
sympathetic distrophy syndrome in hemiplegic patients, we found that CO2
defocused laser seems to be effective in reducing pain of shoulder, and
particular effective when low doses are performed.