The SA Journal Diabetes & Vascular Disease Vol 14 No 1 (July 2017)

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10 VOLUME 14 NUMBER 1 • JULY 2017
REVIEW SA JOURNAL OF DIABETES & VASCULAR DISEASE
quality of life. Identifying a treatment modality to help resolve this
complication remains a difficult task in clinical practice. However a
number of clinical trials suggest LLLT as an alternative and promising
treatment modality that, when combined with other conventional
treatments, has shown potential in improving the healing rate of
chronic diabetic ulcerations. It is therefore essential to recognise
that with the use of LLLT in podiatry and other wound clinics, the
treatment or management of chronic diabetic lower-limb ulcerations
can be reduced to an average of 19 sessions to achieve a complete
recovery,43 compared to 40 sessions using conventional treatments
alone.5,46 This could lead to reduced hospital admissions for people
with diabetic ulcers and lighten the substantial public health and
socio-economic burden to our country. Further investigations are
necessary to obtain conclusive evidence of low-level laser in treating
diabetic foot ulcers in South Africa.
Acknowledgements
This work is based on research supported by the University of
Johannesburg and the South African Research Chairs Initiative of
the Department of Science and Technology and National Research
Foundation of South Africa (Grant No 98337). The authors thank
the National Laser Centre for the supply and servicing of lasers.
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