Photobiomodulation Treatment for Second-Degree Burn Treatment-A Double-Blinded Controlled Pilot Trial

Photobiomodulation (PBM) is a technology that has gained much attention in recent years regarding its potential application for stimulating wound healing, alleviating pain, reducing inflammation, and aiding in the restoration of function. Due to a scarcity of evidence in the literature regarding PBM for the treatment of burns, our objective of this study was to test whether treatment with PBM in hospitalized patients with second-degree burns accelerated recovery. A double-blind controlled study was conducted on nine patients with up to 15% second-degree burns who were hospitalized at Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center, Ein Kerem Campus, Jerusalem Israel, between July 2022 and November 2022. Each patient recruited for the study received PBM treatment on part of the burn area (approximately 10%-20% of the burn area), while the control group was the burn area of the same patient treated only with the usual non-PBM. Treatment parameters were light emitting diode surface including continuous and/or pulsed red (660 nm) and near-infrared (840 nm), 5-16 mW/cm², 2.4-7.7 J/cm² per treatment session. Patients received three to five treatments with a mean epithelization time of 16 days (±2.89 standard deviation [SD]) in the control area, while only 7.56 (±2.29 SD) in the treatment area. The mean percent reduction in healing time was 46.22% (±4.24 SD), which was found to be statistically significant (p = 0.004). Our study demonstrated a statistically significant acceleration of healing in second-degree burns following treatment with PBM for the treatment of burns in patients. However, further studies are needed to determine if these results translate to a reduction in hospitalization time and medical care costs.