A 2011 study published in Clinical Rheumatology compared the traditional treatment of exercise for impingement syndrome of the shoulder to exercise with the addition of low level laser therapy. Research has shown low level laser therapy to be beneficial in accelerating tissue repair by increasing fibroblast formation and circulation, while also decreasing inflammation and pain.
80 patients were divided into two groups; with neither the participant nor therapist knowing which patients were receiving laser therapy or sham laser. Treatment consisted of 10 sessions over two weeks. The intervention group showed significant improvement in both pain and increased range of motion than the exercise group alone. The results were further strengthened as the same therapist performed all the treatment, eliminating practitioner bias.
One weakness of the study was that the study did not differentiate only impingement syndrome, but rather lumped it with biceps tendonitis and other rotator cuff pathologies as they commonly occur together. Strengths of the study were not only the large research group and “gold standard” of being double blinded and randomized, but that the low level laser improved the pain and range of motion, regardless of the underlying musculoskeletal condition.
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