Apparatus for low-level laser therapy: modern status and development trends

Abstract

This paper gives a detailed comparative analysis of the medical-engineering and functional characteristics of more than 180 modifications of modern laser therapeutic devices produced by seventy leading-profile firms in the USA, the countries of the European Union, Japan, Canada, etc. with similar products commercially produced in the CIS (especially in the Russian Federation and Belarus). The main trends in creating new samples of laser medical apparatus for therapeutic purposes are discussed. It is shown that a number of phototherapeutic technologies widely used in the countries of the CIS (combined laser therapy with radiation of various spectral regions, joint magnetolaser therapy, intravenous irradiation of blood using disposable sterile waveguide systems, etc.) provided by modern domestically produced laser therapeutic devices are used virtually not at all in the devices produced in the West. It is pointed out that, despite individual skeptical publications on the therapeutic effectiveness and possibilities of the method of low-level laser therapy, as a whole, there is a significant activation of developments of apparatus for the given technology and consequently also of its use in clinical practice.