24 Years’ Experience of Low Level Laser Therapy (LLLT) for Children with Cerebral Palsy

Since 1991, phototherapy (low-level laser therapy, near-infrared ray therapy and light-emitting diode: LED therapy) has been used in the management and rehabilitation of patients with various orthopaedic diseases. The laser used was a gallium aluminum arsenide (GaAlAs) diode laser giving output powers in continuous wave of 100 mW, at a wavelength of 810 nm. The target points were the acupuncture and the nerve block points, where the myotonia was observed, and the irradiation was performed daily. Each site was irradiated for 1 minute, with a total irradiation time of 20 minutes in total per day with contact method. The spot size at the tissue was 1.04 mm2 giving power densities of 9.61 W/cm2 at 100 mW. Energy densities were 288.3 J/cm2. When compared with patients at other training sites, where only functional training therapy was applied without LLLT, the efficacy of functional training was clearly enhanced by combination with LLLT [1,2].