OBJECTIVE: This study seeks to determine, through functional gait assessment in different irradiation sites, the influence of a low-intensity GaAsAl laser beam on an injury caused by crushing the peroneal nerve in rats. METHODS: 53 rats were used, which were divided into six groups: normal, injured and untreated, injured and treated using placebo, injured and treated in the bone marrow, injured and treated in the nerve, and injured and treated in both (nerve and bone marrow). The peroneal nerve was crushed using a pair of tweezers, and subsequently treated with laser for 28 consecutive days. The functional gait evaluation analyzed the footprints, which were recorded with a video camera on an acrylic bridge in the preoperative period, and on postoperative days 14, 21 and 28, and assessed using PFI formula software. RESULTS: In the functional gait evaluation, significant differences were found only on postoperative day 14. CONCLUSION: Based on the functional gait evaluation, low-intensity GaAsAl irradiation was able to accelerate and reinforce the process of peripheral nerve regeneration in rats on postoperative day 14, both in the bone marrow- and in the nerve-treated groups.
Nerve regeneration; Crush syndrome; Laser therapy
