Efficacy of Low-Level Laser Therapy in The Management of Neck Pain: Systematic Review

Abstract

Background: Laser therapy is an effective therapeutic option that has helped patients with both acute and chronic neuropathies. Low-level laser therapy provides effective short-term pain relief and improvement in cervical range of motion in participants with neck pain. Objective: To explore the evidence related to the efficacy of low-level laser therapy in patients with neck pain. Methods: This systematic review comprised randomized controlled trials in which pain and range of motion were the outcomes investigated. The PEDro scale was then used to assess the quality of the studies involved. Studies from Google Scholar, PubMed, the HEC Digital Library, PEDro and the Cochrane Library were included in this review. Only randomized trials and English-language papers involved people over the age of 18 with neck discomfort and both genders. The population with psychiatric illnesses and traumatic traumas who were less than 18 years old included observational studies, copyright issues and paper in other languages.26 A PRISMA flowchart was also used to demonstrate the entire process of adding and removing articles from review. Results: PEDro scale was used to assess the quality of studies as shown in Table I, showed that all the studies are of high quality. The following variables were collected for each study: general patient information such as mean age, mean duration, percentages of male and female in sample size, country of study, year of study publication, name of first author, sample size and outcome measure (Table II). Studies revealed that laser therapy is found to be statistically significant in treating neck pain, neck range of motion and disability when compared to placebo therapy. Conclusion: This study found that laser therapy decreases pain in participants with persistent neck discomfort shortly after therapy. Laser therapy is proven to be more effective than placebo therapy in relieving arm pain and improving cervical strength and flexibility in participants with severe pain and increasing the quality of life when compared to patients treated with a placebo laser therapy.