LOW LEVEL LASER THERAPY (LLLT) FOR CEREBRAL PALSY

Spasticity in cerebral palsy (CP) patients is a critical factor preventing voluntary movement, and can also be associated with involuntary clonus. Low reactive-level laser therapy (LLLT) has been reported as having good overall efficacy in CP patients and also in controlling clonus. The present study was designed to evaluate LLLT in the clinical setting to attenuate spasticity in severely handicapped CP patients. We treated 20 CP patients with near infrared (830 nm) LLLT (16.2J/cm2/point, once/week over 10 weeks) as a clinical study at our university hospital and a hospital connected with our university. For spasticity of the hip adductor muscle, the obturator nerve was the target for LLLT, and the tibial nerve was irradiated in the case of triceps surae muscle spasticity. LLLT was indicated for the 10 sessions and the degree of attenuation of spasticity was assessed after the final session. Some degree of efficacy and treatment latency was seen in 14 (70%) of the 20 patients, 5 evaluated as excellent, 6 as very good and 3 as fair. Little or no change was seen in the remaining 6 patients, and in no patient did the symptoms worsen. We concluded that LLLT was an efficacious treatment option in the conservative treatment of CP patients, that it was easilyapplied, non-invasive and pain-free, and that it did not have any adverse side effects.