Safety of laser therapy
In order to provide efficient and safe medical care, it is necessary to have sufficient knowledge about basic laser technology and characteristics and usage of medical care devices.
It is also important to make medical care planning based on evidence and clarify adaptive references and contraindications examples.
Japan Laser Veterinary Science Society has been making various efforts to improve safety of laser medical treatment.
Categorization of laser from safety point of view
Class 1: Not applicable laser
- A few micro watt laser examples: bar code scanner
Class 2: lower power laser
- A few milliwatt laser examples: laser pointer
Class 3: Medium power laser
- 5-500mW laser examples: laser light
Class 4: High power laser
- Over 0.5W laser examples: laser devices
Warning label
Examples of laser accidents
At Akvamarin festival, techno concert, in Russia, over 30 audience got damaged by laser beam directly in their eyes, and they were in danger of blindness.
A few people have already lost sight. According to doctors, they cannot recover sight.
Current problems of laser therapy in the veterinary medicine field
They say that the current laser technology is one of the biggest inventions in the 20th century
- Many laser therapy devices were invented, which enabled less invasive medical treatment. However their medical care guidance and adaptation cases are ambiguous, and their performance is different. (e.g. laser glaucoma care, laser disc herniation decompression medical care (PLDD), laser thermia photochemical treatment (PDT), laser local coagulation treatment, pain relief, and so on.)
- In the laser therapy field, clinical cases are often preceding with poor evidence
- There is confusion and misunderstanding about various laser wavelength and spreading various phototherapy
