Licht und Covid-19 — Ein Update: Light and COVID-19 — An Update

Light, laser and acupuncture have also made important contributions to medicine in the current pandemic. The main aim of a recently published review was to examine how light has been used as a therapeutic method during the COVID-19 crisis. Another goal is to encourage scientists and industry to rapidly develop new, simple methods of photobiomodulation therapy (PBMT) and/or photodynamic therapy (PDT) for use at home. The results so far have shown that PBMT can be used partially successfully in SARS-CoV-2 infections and enabled significant improvements in airway inflammation and the general clinical condition of the patients. The use only in a limited number of cases implies the need for future randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trials to actually objectify the effect of PBMT and PDT in COVID-19. In this ongoing and challenging search for the seemingly intangible end to this pandemic, PBMT and PDT appear to be non-invasive, easily accessible, safe, and side-effect-free methods.