Treating an infected wound with laser therapy

The patient is a Peruvian dog breed aged four years, weighing 6.7 Kg, 4/9 body condition score, entire male. It has a diet of dried and home-made food.

The patient was attacked by another dog of a larger breed, causing significant wounds in the neck area. A decision was made to close the wounds surgically and install a Penrose drain. Treatment was also provided with antibiotics and anti-inflammatory drugs.

In the first 48 hours following this therapeutic option, the patient is depressed and has an increased temperature.

The wound that was previously closed surgically has re-opened, with significant infection and inflammation of the wound. It is cleaned thoroughly and the edges of the wound are revived. In light of the situation, a second attempt at closing the wound is attempted with laser therapy.

The treatment area is measured at 130 cm2, adding 3 cm of surrounding healthy tissue. The infection and inflammation protocols are chosen to begin with. Treatment is applied twice per week.

Moist treatments are applied after each session and Cefovecina is administered every fortnight.

When good colouration of the wound starts to become noticeable, a decision is made to switch the infection protocol for the subcutaneous protocol. It is very important during the course of these sessions to take measurements and readjust the protocols as the wound begins to heal and therefore shrink.

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Once the wound has improved and reduced in size, a decision is taken to close the wound surgically. However, it re-opens due to skin tension. A decision is immediately taken to treat using the inflammation and incision protocols. Treatment then continues with the inflammation and subcutaneous protocols until the wound closes.

Treatment is applied twice per week for a total of 19 sessions. The sweeper treatment head was used with the scanning application technique in non-contact mode.

Laser therapy has shown itself in numerous articles to be useful in wound healing and this is one of the effects of laser therapy on which the most studies have been conducted. Laser therapy accelerates the process by 30-40%.

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