comparison of the effect of low-level laser and phenytoin therapy on skin wound healing in rats

introduction: different modalities have been used to achieve better results in wound healing among which are laser and pharmacological agents. to our knowledge, there is no investigation to compare phenytoin and laser together. in this study, we aimed to evaluate laser and phenytoin efficacy and compare their effect on wound healing. methods: we used 60 rats. the animals were divided into 4 groups, 15 rats in each and each group was subdivided into 3 subgroups for which postoperative evaluation was performed on days 3, 7, and 14. after general anesthesia and back hair shaving of each rat, an excisional wound was made. the wounds in group 2 were treated with 1% phenytoin cream. in group 3, the wounds were irradiated with diode laser. the wounds of group 4 were treated with both phenytoin cream and laser administration. the animals of group 1 served as control. for histopathological evaluation, hematoxylin and eosin staining was used. polymorphonuclear leucocytes (pmns), re-epithelization, fibroblasts, new vessels and collagen were evaluated. results: faster reduction in polymorphonuclear cells after 7 and 14 days and more collagen fibers on the third day in laser treated group was statistically significant ( p < .05) .the result for the phenytoin treated group were not better than control group. when both laser and phenytoin were used samples showed more collagen fibers on the third day, which was statistically significant ( p < .05). conclusion: it seems that low level laser is effective in skin wound healing and have better results than phenytoin application.