There are evidences that laser therapy may stimulate nerve regeneration and this hypothesis was tested in rats. A controlled crush injury was produced on the sciatic nerve of 20 Wistar rats, half of which submitted to effective Ga-As laser irradiation and the other half to simulated irradiation for 10 consecutive days beginning on the first postoperative day. Results were evaluated at three weeks postoperatively by measuring the sciatic functional index (SFI) at weekly intervals and the total number of nerve fibers and nerve fiber density of the sciatic nerve at three weeks (p<0.05). The SFI progressively improved for both irradiated and control nerves (69% and 45%, respectively) with a significant difference between them at two weeks (p=0.04). Nerve fiber density increased for the irradiated nerves and decreased for the control nerves, with significant differences between them (p=0.001). Low intensity therapeutic ultrasound accelerates nerve regeneration, as demonstrated with significance on the 21st postoperative day.
Nerve regeneration; Crush syndrome; Laser therapy; Sciatic nerve
