How Red Light Therapy Boosts Wound Healing ?

 Today I will be explaining another important effect of red light therapy - wound healing. It’s hard to believe but I will show you the solid proof of that.

Red light with a wavelength of 600-700nm is one of the commonly used physical therapy methods. The Danish medical scientist Finsen won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1903 for treating patients with smallpox and lupus with red light. Due to the deep penetration of red light, it can When it reaches more than 30mm, it directly acts on blood vessels, nerve endings, and lymphatic vessels to play a therapeutic effect. Irradiating the wound can promote wound healing and reduce wound pain.

In recent years, red light therapy has been widely studied and applied in the auxiliary treatment of various wounds, including surgical incisions, burns, scalds, diabetic wounds, refractory ulcer wounds and other special wounds.

Clinical studies have shown that the effective rate of red light irradiation on wound healing is significantly higher than that of the control group, and the curative effect of longer-term irradiation is better than that of short-term irradiation.

There are many basic studies on wound healing, and the rules are obtained through cell experiments and animal models, as follows.

1. Stimulate cell proliferation and promote cell growth. The therapeutic effect of red light on wounds is mainly through the photochemical reaction to make the mitochondria of cells absorb the red light in photons, and promote the synthesis of adenosine triphosphate, thus strengthening the metabolism of cells and promoting the growth rate of fibroblasts and muscle cells by 5 times, it can repair vascular endothelial cells and heal wounds.

2. The level of growth factors in the vascular endothelial cells is promoted significantly, and the wound healing rate is significantly increased.

3. Promote the production of collagen on the wound surface, promote the stability of connective tissue and accelerate the repair of damaged tissue.

4. Oxygen free radicals released by mitochondria in cells are one of the factors affecting wound healing, and after red light irradiation, the function of scavenging oxygen free radicals in the body is strengthened, thus reducing the degree of cell damage.

The Hospital of California, treated 60 cases of venous ulcers of lower extremities with wet healing combined with red light irradiation, including 31 cases in the observation group and 29 cases in the control group. Treatment Results In the observation group, 16 cases were cured, 4 cases were improved, 11 cases were markedly effective, and 0 cases were ineffective. There were 7, 15, 3, and 4 cases in the control group, respectively, and the observation group was better than the control group, and the difference was statistically significant (x=2.853, P=001). The wound healing time and pain index of the observation group were also statistically significant. The wound healing time of the observation group was (37.5±3.6) d and the pain index was 2.8±0.3, which were better than those of the control group (48.2+4.3) d and 3.5±0.5.

It shows that wet healing combined with red light irradiation in the treatment of venous ulcers of lower extremities can shorten the wound healing time, increase the healing rate, reduce pain and improve comfort.

Mitochondrial catalase activity increases, promotes the scavenging of oxygen free radicals, increases cell metabolism, increases glycogen content, promotes protein synthesis and decomposition of adenosine triphosphate, and strengthens cell regeneration.

In addition to venous ulcers, it can also be used for incisions of perianal abscesses, hemorrhoids, appendicitis, diabetic foot ulcers, etc., and good curative effects can be achieved with red light irradiation. Red light irradiation, as an efficient treatment for promoting wound healing, not only ensures good wound healing, but also reduces the infection rate, shortens the hospitalization time of patients, and reduces treatment costs, so it is worthy of promotion and application.

Especially for pressure sores caused by long-term bed rest, red light has a better effect, such as pressure sores in stage III of obstructive pulmonary disease, pressure sores in stages II and III after stroke, and infection of hemodialysis arteriovenous fistula in uremia patients. There are good clinical efficacy reports.