EFFECT OF THERAPEUTIC LASER IN THE MANAGEMENT OF DIABETIC NEUROPATHY PAIN

Background: Diabetes mellitus is characterized by absolute or relative insulin deficiency, hyperglycemia and development of diabetic specific micro vascular complications in retina, kidney and nerves. Micro vascular disease significantly contributes to increased morbidity and indirectly contributes to mortality through diabetic neuropathy. Pain may occur with either acute or chronic neuropathy. It results from small fibre damage. Lancinating, neuralgia - type will follow ectopic generation of nerve impulses, whereas chronic, burning pain is due to nerve is chaemia. Therapeutic laser (TL) is gaining much importance in reducing neuropathic pain Objective: To find out the effect of therapeutic laser in the management of diabetic neuropathy pain by comparing with regular medication. Methods: 50 patients were selected by using lottery method of simple random sampling procedure into two groups (Group A 25 and Group B 25) equally. Group A was treated with medications (oral hypoglycemic, analgesics and anti - depressant drugs) for four weeks. Group B was treated with TL for 10mins for 4 times a week for 4 weeks with a dosage of 4J/cm 2 . Their pre & post treatment values were extracted basing on modified Toronto clinical neuropathy score (mTCNS). Results: Both groups pre and post test values were extracted for four weeks and analyzed individually by using Wilcoxon signed rank test. Both groups showed variation in their scores individually. When compared between the groups by using Mann Whitney U - test, group B showed remarkable variation when compared with group A. Conclusion: TL has shown remarkable reduction in pain score of group B when compared with group A. TL is one of the best treatment modality in reducing neuropathic pain. Physiotherapists can gain access with this treatment to proliferate their practice in treating diabetic neuropathic pain. . [ Ethiop.J. Health Dev. 2019; 33(2):142-144] Key words: Diabetes mellitus (DM), diabetic neuropathy (DN), low level laser irradiation(LLLI), Mc Gill Pain Questionnaire(MPQ), modified toronto clinical neuropathy score (mTCNS).