During the injured tendons healing process there is the inflammatory phase, which occurs in the presence, among other signs, of pain and edema. The antiinflammatory drug therapy receives some criticism, with respect to its deleterious effects for the repair, thus gain body the use of physical resources for the process control. The aim of this study was to evaluate the use of low level laser therapy on the pain and edema of the rats calcaneus tendon, subjected to experimental trauma. We used 28 rats Wistar, divided into four groups: GC - subjected to traumatic injury and the placebo treatment; G2 - subject to injury and irradiated with laser 2 J/cm²; G4 - subject to injury and irradiated with 4 J/cm²; G8 - submitted to injury and irradiated with 8 J/cm². The lesion was performed with the fall of a weight on the side of the right calcaneus tendon of each animal, with energy of about 0.40 J. The pain was evaluated by the paw elevation time (PET) for a minute, the animal walking on a metal cylinder with 30 cm in diameter at 3 rpm; the edema evaluation occurred through caliper; moments of the evaluation were: after and before injury, before treatment, 2 hours, 8 hours, 24 hours and 5th injury day. Treatment with laser 670 nm, was so punctual and daily. The results showed increases in PET and formation of edema in all groups after the injury, and for the groups treated there were reducing the pain and edema, being observed in the control group only with the edema reduction in the 5th placebo day. We concluded that the treatment with low level laser therapy decreased the pain and edema of the animals with tendon trauma, in a dose-dependent manner.
achilles tendon; low level laser therapy; pain measurement
