Blue Light Empirical Shine Study: a pilot case series

SUMMARY

• In this case series, nine patients with lower limbs non-healing wounds of different aetiologies were treated with Blue Light Photobiomodulation therapy (EmoLED) at the Specialist Clinic Ambulatory Care Centre, Hospital Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (SCACC HKL).
• Non healing wound is defined as a wound that has not healed by 40–50% after four weeks of good standard of care. The patients enrolled were not responding to standard care for an average of 62 days before Blue Light therapy.
• The patient’s ages ranged from 45 to 83 years. Of the nine patients, seven had diabetes mellitus, six of which also had vascular diseases.
• The patients had a diagnosis of: diabetic foot ulcer (5), venous ulcer (1), traumatic wound (1), surgical dehiscence (1) and stump dehiscence (1).
• All patients underwent standard wound hygiene procedures, including thorough cleansing of the wound with distilled water and, if necessary, debridement and reshaping, before receiving EmoLED treatment.
• In patients with diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) and stump dehiscence (diabetic patient) a 120-second weekly treatment was administered to the affected area,  while the other wound types received a 60-second treatment per area.
• Following each treatment, wounds were managed according to standard care protocols using modern dressing techniques. DFU cases involved offloading, while the venous ulcer received compression therapy.
• All the patients registered wound closure and the time to achieve complete wound healing was 109 days from the beginning of EmoLED treatment.
• In this case series, it has been shown that despite having different underlying causes, all nine patients responded positively to Blue Light therapy. This suggests that all wounds shares a common pathophysiological pathway, which results in similar responses to Blue Light and ultimately leads to the same outcome: complete wound healing.
• To improve the validity of the result, the Authors intend to undertake a more extensive study.