Lasers may number among the effective treatments for chronic plantar fasciitis, suggests a recent study. The randomized, double-blind study concerned 37 patients with chronic plantar fasciitis who were treated with low-level 635 nm lasers and 32 who had placebo treatments. Patients received treatments twice a week over a three-week period.
At the final follow-up visit at eight weeks after treatment, the study notes the laser patients demonstrated a mean improvement in heel pain with a Visual Analog Scale score of 29.6 in comparison with a mean improvement of 5.4 in the placebo patients. In addition to being non-invasive, low-level laser therapy is a form of regenerative medicine as the modality’s mitochondrial stimulation initiates a low-grade inflammatory cascade of events that can stimulate revascularization of the thickened fascial tissue, according to study co-author Kerry Zang,…
