Role of laser therapy in post herpetic neuralgia

The efficacy of combi laser therpay was evaluated in fifty cases of post neuralgia (PHN) of different age groups (31 to 81 years) and with varying duration of illness from 2 months to 4 and a half years in the present study. The affected areas were irradiated from a distance of 5 cms. using the probe of 12x70 watts at a frequency of 1000 Hz. each area being exposed for a time period of 5 minutes and 6 seconds. In each case the combi laser therapy was given for 15 consecutive days and therapeutic effect of the therapy was evaluated after 5th, 10th and 15th laser application during the treatment with the help of visual analouge scale (VAS). Patients started responding to the therapy after an average of 3.28 laser applications and VAS steadily decreased as the therapy progressed. After completion of therapy, 43 (86%) out of 50 cases showed excellent relief (76-100%) and remaining 7 (14%) cases showed partial relief, 4(8%) cases with good relief (51-75%), 2 (4%) cases with fair relief (26-50%) and 1(2%) case with poor relief (1-25%). Partial relief in our 7 cases could be due to multiple factors like prolonged duration of illness, involvement of ophthalmic division of trigeminal nerve and formation of scarring and keloids. No side effects were observed during the treatment as well as duing the follow up period of 8 weeks.