title: Laser therapy in the tissue repair process: a literature review.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Carry out a literature review on the use of laser therapy in the tissue repair process and address the different lasers and parameters used by the authors.
  
  
  METHODS
  A review was carried out of the literature from 1960 to 2008 in the Lilacs, Medline, and PubMed databases using the following key words: Laser Therapy, Wound Healing, and Tissue repair.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The most frequently used types of laser are helium neon (HeNe) lasers and diode lasers, including gallium-aluminum-arsenium (GaAlAs), arsenium-gallium (AsGa), and indium-gallium-aluminum-phosphide (InGaAlP) lasers. However, implementation of different protocols was found, with different materials and different activating wavelengths, thus making it difficult to compare results and choose the parameters of treatment.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The majority of authors report that laser therapy speeds up the process of tissue repair, but further studies are suggested to determine the best parameters to be used.
authors.affiliation: Physiotherapy Department, Faculdade de Tecnologia e Ciências, Vitória da Conquista, Brazil. jacquepereira@gmail.com
authors.forename: Jacqueline Pereira
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: da Silva
authors.forename: Maéli Alves
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: da Silva
authors.forename: Ana Paula Figueiredo
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Almeida
authors.forename: Império
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Lombardi Junior
authors.forename: Areolino Pena
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Matos
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D028022:Low-Level Light Therapy / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D014945:Wound Healing / Q000528:radiation effects*