Evaluation of wound healing after cold laser irradiation in bovine

The present study was undertaken on 24 calves randomly divided into 2 equal groups, consisting of 12 animals each. In group I antiseptic dressing of the wound was carried out with hydrogen peroxide, normal saline and povidone iodine for first 3 days followed by cleaning with normal saline, povidone iodine and ointment neomycin sulphate and zinc bacitracin and administration of inj. procaine penicillin, benzyl penicillin and streptomycin sulphate 10 mg/kg b.wt, i.m. once daily for seven days and inj. meloxicam 0.5 mg/kg b.wt were administered for first 3 days. In group II, the animals were treated as group I, along with in irradiation with low level laser therapy (LLLT) for 7 days continuously starting from 4^th day onwards. Deeper wounds were treated with LLLT for 4 minutes with a frequency of 10Hz at 2.4J of energy, whereas superficial wounds were irradiated with LLLT for 4 min with a frequency of 30Hz at 2.4 J of energy. One cm² of the healing tissue was collected aseptically on day 10^th, 20^th and 30^th (4 calves each in both groups I and II) post-treatment for various biochemical studies. Results showed higher collagen, elastin, hydroxyproline and hexosamine contents in the laser treated group of calves as compared to control group, indicating the beneficial effects of laser irradiation in accelerating wound healing.