Leprosy is disease of skin and peripheral nerve especially. Sequale and disability of musculoskeletal system, especially peripheral extremities (hands and foots) can be developed due to severe and irreversible peripheral nerve damage in leprosy. In leprosy, Skin ulcers can relapse very often and progress to deformity and amputation of hands or foot. We need methods to treat skin ulcer effectively. We have used various therapies such as antibiotics in infectious state, disinfectant, variable wet dressing materials(transparent film, foams, gels&hydrogels, hydrocolloids, calcium alignate), silver dressing, Vacuum Assisted Closure unit, debridement, curettage, surgery to treat skin ulcer in leprosy patients. Sometimes we can treat skin ulcer successfully but, we often encounter ulcer resistant to treat. We need to find and develop methods to treat ulcer successfully. Several researches have reported articles to treat wound successfully using light emitting diode(LED). We tried to treat ulcer in old leprosy patients using LED. We divided ulcers patients into case group(conventional dressing therapy + LED therapy) and control group (only conventional dressing therapy) randomly in out patient department and in ward. This research was carried out from February 2012 to September 2012. Case group and control group have composed of 30 patients respectively. Average age of patients was 74 years old in case group and 69 years old in control group. We have used LED device composed of 700 pieces of diodes emitting 635nm and 500 pieces of diodes emitting 830nm, totally 1200 pieces of diodes. We have observed the size of wounds twice per week in control group and case group. Before treatment average size of wounds was 8509.76mm3 in case group and 8625.33mm3 in control group. P-vale was 0.49. There was no significant difference in case and control group. After treatment average size of wounds was 787.83mm3 in case group and 8074.63mm3 in control group. P-vale was 0.02. There was significant difference in case and control group. After treatment average reduction of size per time was 338.02mm3/day in case group and 26.55mm3/day in control group. P-vale was 0.002. There was significant difference in case and control group. Therefore we have concluded that LED device was effective in wound treatment. Some articles have reported that LED Device have helped to treat wounds in DM ulcer, third degree burn, oral ulcer, skin ulcer in Klippel-Trenaunay syndrome patient, some retinopathy etc. We have concluded that LED of infrared or long visible wavelength light can be used effectively in treatment of wound along with conventional treatment concurrently.
Amputation ; Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Bandages ; Burns ; Calcium ; Colloids ; Congenital Abnormalities ; Curettage ; Debridement ; Enzyme Multiplied Immunoassay Technique ; Extremities ; Foot ; Foot Ulcer ; Hand ; Humans ; Klippel-Trenaunay-Weber Syndrome ; Leprosy ; Light ; Musculoskeletal System ; Negative-Pressure Wound Therapy ; Oral Ulcer ; Peripheral Nerves ; Recurrence ; Silver ; Skin ; Skin Ulcer ; Ulcer