Laser Therapy/Photobiomodulation- Brief Review of Principles &Current Literature

INTRODUCTION
“Light Therapy” is a medical treatment modality in which light is used to trigger a cascade of cellular biochemical reactions that can result in clinically beneficial therapeutic outcomes, such as, for example, alleviation of pain and reduction of inflammation (1).

In this presentation, we review, at a high-level, the basic science of Light Therapy.

BACKGROUND
Terminology

To facilitate the discussion, throughout this presentation we use PhotoBioModulation Therapy (PBMT) to describe the use of light in the treatment of injury and/or disease (2).

Unfortunately, unlike naming the therapy, no consensus exists among researchers to describe its dosimetry. Most of the existing literature gives PBMT doses as Joules or Joules/cm2 delivered to the skin; however, neither Joules nor Joules/cm2 are sufficiently prescriptive to define a unique dose. Other parameters of the applied light must be given for a PBMT dose to be fully prescribed and, if needed, accurately replicated. In this presentation, we propose and define a minimal set of parameters needed to prescribe a unique PBMT dose - Wavelength, Energy, Power, exposure time, and Irradiance.
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