This web page is dedicated to the systematic review of infrared radiation therapies tested in the last 3 years. Promising uses of infrared radiation and heating methods have most recently been discovered in their applications to wound healing. Several studies have been performed to test the potential benefits of various forms of infrared radiation -- some white-light based and others employing lasers. Only studies published in refereed journals are being used in this review.
Various modalities based on differing theories concerning the affect
of the radiation itself were studied. Some research experiments were based on the
idea that the heat itself is beneficial to cell production and growth while others seemed
to indicate that the infrared energy is related to local increases in beneficial molecules,
such as Nitric Oxide (NO). For the most part, infrared radiation was shown to
improve wound healing by speeding up the actual healing process and increasing the
tensile strength of the resulting surface tissue.
IR lasers have more recently been demonstrated to have medical applications
in a method dubbed "skin welding." Such techniques require higher energy IR radiation on
much smaller target areas in order to literally weld wounds and surgical incisions together.
However, this method is still experimental, and although the welds have been shown to be stronger
than conventional sutures, the pervasive burns that accompany such a technique have proven to be a
hindrance. Some methods that utilize dyes have shown to decrease the likelihood of these
often severe burns, but further research is necessary before any definitive conclusions about the
efficacy of such a therapy are drawn.
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