Objective: Osteoarthritis (OA) is a chronic and prevalent joint disorder that greatly impacts quality of life and has
a high economic burden on health resources. Although a number of conservative therapies have
proven to be effective for the management of hand OA, only modest treatment effects were reported
for most individual interventions.
The aim of the proposed study is to assess the effect of laser therapy on pain and pinch strength in
subjects with thumb carpometacarpal osteoarthritis (CMC OA)
Materials and Methods: 43 patients, (mean ± SD age: 71 ±12 years; 57% female) with the diagnosis of CMC joint OA grade
1-2 were randomized to the control (n=21) or experimental (n=23) groups. The primary outcome
measures were pain intensity [Visual Analogue Scale (VAS)], and the secondary outcome measure was
key pinch strength (dynamometer).
The experimental group received laser therapy and control group received a placebo treatment. All
outcome measures were collected at baseline, immediately following the intervention at 4 weeks, and
at 12 weeks following the intervention.
Results: The experimental group evidenced a 2-point improvement VAS pain score following the treatment.
There was a gain of 0.7 kg of pinch strength in the experimental group following the treatment. The
effects of both pinch strength gains and pain reduction diminished by the 12 week follow up.
Conclusions: High intensity laser therapy effectively decreases pain intensity when used as a isolated treatment for
early CMC OA, but the effect of treatment decreases after 3 months.
