Those of you who have visited our practice in the last few years, I’m sure have heard mention of Laser treatments for various conditions for our patients. Previous updates in this column have highlighted this technology as one of the most important and dramatic trends in veterinary practice during the past ten years. As an early adopter of Low Level Light (Laser) Therapy LLLT Brockton Animal Hospital has had the good fortune of providing research data and support for Thor Laser Photomedicine, a UK company that is one of the driving forces in pushing the limits of laser therapy in medical research. Though Thor’s primary area of research focuses on human medicine, they have been recentering some of their efforts in pushing LLLT to the forefront of veterinary practice. What does all this mean? Being directly connected to the cutting edge of medical research allows us to utilize laser therapy in disease conditions that have not been previously treated with Laser.
When Low Level Laser Therapy first emerged, the primary focus was pain relief in chronic arthritic conditions. Likewise the doctors at the Brockton Animal Hospital initally used laser therapy to treat dogs and cats with chronic osteoarthritis yet realized quickly that the possiblities were endless. Since light therapy is anti inflammatory as well as stimualtory for healing it can be utilized in any disease condition where there is inflammation. Couple that with the ability to speed healing and the implications are obvious. Since nearly any disease is accompanied by inflammation in one tissue or another there is no end to possible applications.
What started merely as a drug free treatment for the pain of arthritis (chronic pain medications can be deterimental) has now expanded into a treatment specialty of it’s own. We now use laser in a variety of unrelated conditions such as:
Head Trauma including traumatic brain injury
Eye (ocular) diseases such as corneal injury or ulcers
Ear conditions like acute painful otitis (ear infections)
Accelerated Healing of Fractures
Degenerative Disc Disease including disc herniation
Chronic Kidney Disease
Liver Disease
Dentistry post extraction
Chronic Arthritis of Multiple Joints
ACL (anterior cruciate injuries)
to name but a few. With new evidence continually coming to light as research papers surface it seems like future uses of laser will be limited only by the practitioner’s imagination. If this technology interests you and you would like to search further http://www.thorlaser.com/ links to several studies citing evidence in a variety of disease conditions. Or if you think your pet may benefit from laser therapy feel free to contact our office and we’ll have one of the doctors discuss the possibilites with you. It is a fascinating field and we at the Brockton Animal Hospital are very proud to be one of the foremost veterinary laser practitioners in the US. We’ll continue to bring you updates in the field of laser technology.