Athletic Trainers Adopting New Laser Therapy

Increasingly, athletic trainers from professional teams to little league are adopting treatments using lasers in physical therapy of their injured athletes. Many have found that laser therapy is the easiest, fastest and most effective means of keeping athletes in the game instead of the injured list. We are fortunate to have medical devices such as lasers to keep competitors competing.

-By Valerie Hunt, NATA News
Oct. 15, 2002

Two certified athletic trainers are among a handful of people in the United States comprising an initial group of professionals certified to use a new low-level laser. The device, they say, offers amazing relief for people with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, and it also represents a wealth of research opportunity.

Doug Johnson, ATC, co-owner of Sports and Industrial Rehab in Taylor , Mich. , and Ray Maleyto, ATC, a Sports and Industrial Rehab employee, both are certified to use MicroLight Corporation of America 's ML 830® low-level laser, which gained U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval in February for treatment of carpal tunnel syndrome.

The ML 830® remains the only laser with FDA approval for CTS, and fewer than 30 of the machines exist currently, although the Texas-based manufacturer is working to fill a growing demand for the tool.

“Canada has had this technology since 1994, but the United States is just now getting it," Johnson said. "It is scary how well this laser works. It's the first thing in therapy that can actually help heal the tissue."

Getting Results
Johnson began following the development of the ML 830 ® laser after its clinical trials years ago. General Motors and one of Baylor University’s medical centers both tested the device. “GM in 10 years spent $2 billion on Carpal Tunnel Syndrome alone, between lost production, re-education of employees, medical costs and employee replacements,” Johnson said. “They conducted trials of the laser and found it to be 70 to 80 percent effective - nearly 80 percent of the people in the study went back to work full-duty, while the other 20 percent had some improvement but did not have full resolution.”

“They considered full resolution to be total elimination of pain and limitations, and 80 percent of the people achieve that,” he said. "That's a big deal. They weren't testing a small group - they tested every employee who was diagnosed with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.”
“We had a client who suffered Carpal Tunnel for 14 years, as a result of cutting hair and working at Target," Johnson said. "She was seriously debilitated. After two treatments, she had full range of motion and was sleeping through the night again.”

"Another patient in our building went from 30 pounds of grip strength to 60 pounds of grip strength in three treatments. We also treated a guy who had flexor tendinitis, and he went from 30 pounds of grip strength to 130 pounds in three treatments."

Because they wanted to test the laser's capabilities, Johnson and Maleyko both underwent laser therapy themselves. They were eager to experience the laser from a patient's point of view.

“It's a lot like ultrasound - you don't feel it," Johnson said. "Occasionally you can feel a tingle. There's no heat. It's very comfortable. I had tendinitis in my elbow horribly bad, from keyboarding because of a big proposal I'd been working on. The laser eliminated the pain. Ray had tendinitis from playing guitar and baseball, and it worked with him, too.”

Although the laser is approved by the FDA only for treatment of CTS, patients can opt to take part in clinical investigations and undergo low-level laser therapy on other parts of their body. Johnson said he has used the laser on nearly every part of himself and found positive results each time.

Maleyko pointed out what he feels is one of the laser's most significant achievements: It works on diabetic patients as quickly as non-diabetic patients.
“There's so much potential here,” he said. “Our short-term and long-term goals are to do solid research on other applications, including lateral epicondylitis as well as the effects of low-level laser therapy on diabetic wound healing.”

“This laser is not a cure-all,” Maleyko added, “but it is certainly doing amazing things.”

Johnson said the therapy does more than simply relieve pain. “Like any modality, if you continue the insulting activity, your going to continue to have the problem,” he said. “But the laser causes healing rather then pain blockage. This does have a lasting effect. The problem is, if you continue to do the activity that led to your problem and you don't modify it through ergonomics, you'll develop it again.”