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Spread of the Optical Power Emission of Three Units Each of Two Different Laser Therapy Devices Used in Sports Medicine, Which Cannot Be Assessed by the Users, Shown by Means of High-Fidelity Laser Measurement Technology

Laser therapy devices (LTDs) operating with near-infrared laser light are increasingly being used in sports medicine. For several reasons, users cannot evaluate whether or not such devices emit laser beams according to the specifications provided by the manufacturer and the settings of the device. I...

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Autores principales: Kaub, Leon, Schmitz, Christoph
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9953381/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36831122
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines11020585
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author Kaub, Leon
Schmitz, Christoph
author_facet Kaub, Leon
Schmitz, Christoph
author_sort Kaub, Leon
collection PubMed
description Laser therapy devices (LTDs) operating with near-infrared laser light are increasingly being used in sports medicine. For several reasons, users cannot evaluate whether or not such devices emit laser beams according to the specifications provided by the manufacturer and the settings of the device. In this study, the laser beams from two different LTDs that can be used in sports medicine were thoroughly characterized by measuring the emitted power, pulse shapes and lengths and spatial intensity distributions using professional, high-fidelity laser measurement technology. This was repeated for three units of each LDT independently to distinguish problems of individual units from potential intrinsic instrument design errors. The laser beams from the units of one LTD agreed with the settings of the device, with the measured average power for these units being within 3.3% of the set power. In contrast, the laser beams from the units of the other LTD showed large deviations between the settings and the actual emitted light. This device came with three laser diodes that could be used independently and simultaneously. The average power differed greatly between the units as well as between the laser diodes within each unit. Some laser diodes emitted essentially no light, which could lead to a lack of treatment for patients. Other laser diodes emitted much more power than set at the device (up to 230%), which could result in skin irritations or burning of patients. These findings indicate a need for better standardization and consistency of therapeutic laser light sources.
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spelling pubmed-99533812023-02-25 Spread of the Optical Power Emission of Three Units Each of Two Different Laser Therapy Devices Used in Sports Medicine, Which Cannot Be Assessed by the Users, Shown by Means of High-Fidelity Laser Measurement Technology Kaub, Leon Schmitz, Christoph Biomedicines Article Laser therapy devices (LTDs) operating with near-infrared laser light are increasingly being used in sports medicine. For several reasons, users cannot evaluate whether or not such devices emit laser beams according to the specifications provided by the manufacturer and the settings of the device. In this study, the laser beams from two different LTDs that can be used in sports medicine were thoroughly characterized by measuring the emitted power, pulse shapes and lengths and spatial intensity distributions using professional, high-fidelity laser measurement technology. This was repeated for three units of each LDT independently to distinguish problems of individual units from potential intrinsic instrument design errors. The laser beams from the units of one LTD agreed with the settings of the device, with the measured average power for these units being within 3.3% of the set power. In contrast, the laser beams from the units of the other LTD showed large deviations between the settings and the actual emitted light. This device came with three laser diodes that could be used independently and simultaneously. The average power differed greatly between the units as well as between the laser diodes within each unit. Some laser diodes emitted essentially no light, which could lead to a lack of treatment for patients. Other laser diodes emitted much more power than set at the device (up to 230%), which could result in skin irritations or burning of patients. These findings indicate a need for better standardization and consistency of therapeutic laser light sources. MDPI 2023-02-16 /pmc/articles/PMC9953381/ /pubmed/36831122 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines11020585 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Kaub, Leon
Schmitz, Christoph
Spread of the Optical Power Emission of Three Units Each of Two Different Laser Therapy Devices Used in Sports Medicine, Which Cannot Be Assessed by the Users, Shown by Means of High-Fidelity Laser Measurement Technology
title Spread of the Optical Power Emission of Three Units Each of Two Different Laser Therapy Devices Used in Sports Medicine, Which Cannot Be Assessed by the Users, Shown by Means of High-Fidelity Laser Measurement Technology
title_full Spread of the Optical Power Emission of Three Units Each of Two Different Laser Therapy Devices Used in Sports Medicine, Which Cannot Be Assessed by the Users, Shown by Means of High-Fidelity Laser Measurement Technology
title_fullStr Spread of the Optical Power Emission of Three Units Each of Two Different Laser Therapy Devices Used in Sports Medicine, Which Cannot Be Assessed by the Users, Shown by Means of High-Fidelity Laser Measurement Technology
title_full_unstemmed Spread of the Optical Power Emission of Three Units Each of Two Different Laser Therapy Devices Used in Sports Medicine, Which Cannot Be Assessed by the Users, Shown by Means of High-Fidelity Laser Measurement Technology
title_short Spread of the Optical Power Emission of Three Units Each of Two Different Laser Therapy Devices Used in Sports Medicine, Which Cannot Be Assessed by the Users, Shown by Means of High-Fidelity Laser Measurement Technology
title_sort spread of the optical power emission of three units each of two different laser therapy devices used in sports medicine, which cannot be assessed by the users, shown by means of high-fidelity laser measurement technology
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9953381/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36831122
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines11020585
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