Phototherapy improves healing of chronic venous ulcers.
OBJECTIVE
We tested the hypothesis that LED phototherapy with combined 660-nm and 890-nm light will promote healing of venous ulcers that failed to respond to other forms of treatment.


BACKGROUND
A variety of dressings, growth factors, and adjunct therapies are used to treat venous ulcers, but none seems to yield satisfactory results.


METHODS
We used a randomized placebo-controlled double-blind study to compare a total of 20 patients divided with 32 chronic ulcers into three groups. In group 1 the ulcers were cleaned, dressed with 1% silver sulfadiazine (SDZ) cream, and treated with placebo phototherapy (<.03 J/cm(-3)) using a Dynatron Solaris 705 phototherapy research device. In group 2 the ulcers were treated similarly but received real phototherapy (3 J/cm(-2)) instead of placebo. In group 3 (controls), the ulcers were simply cleaned and dressed with SDZ without phototherapy. The ulcers were evaluated with digital photography and computer image analysis over 90 d or until full healing was attained.


RESULTS
Ulcers treated with phototherapy healed significantly faster than controls when compared at day 30 (p +/- 0.01), day 60 (p +/- 0.05), and day 90 (p +/- 0.001), and similarly healed faster than the placebo-treated ulcers at days 30 and 90 (p +/- 0.01), but not at day 60. The beneficial effect of phototherapy was more pronounced when the confounding effect of small-sized ulcers was removed from the analysis. Medium- and large-sized ulcers healed significantly faster with treatment (>or=40% rate of healing per month) than placebo or control ulcers (p +/- 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
Phototherapy promotes healing of chronic venous ulcers, particularly large recalcitrant ulcers that do not respond to conventional treatment.
Caetano
Kelly Steinkopf
KS
Department of Bioengineering, Faculty of Medicine, University of São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, Brazil.
Frade
Marco Andrey Cipriani
MA
Minatel
Débora Garbin
DG
Santana
Luisiane Avila
LA
Enwemeka
Chukuka S
CS
D000891:Anti-Infective Agents, Local / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D006801:Humans; D010789:Phototherapy; D012837:Silver Sulfadiazine / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D014647:Varicose Ulcer / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*; D014945:Wound Healing
D000891:Anti-Infective Agents, Local; D012837:Silver Sulfadiazine