Photobiomodulation associated with functional elastic bandaging promotes recovery from tissue necrosis in surgical wounds.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the effectiveness of photobiomodulation associated with functional elastic bandaging in reducing wound measurements and improving healing in patients with surgical wound complications.

METHOD: This is an interventional study. Twelve women were included after breast cancer surgery. The surgical wound assessment was performed using the Bates-Jensen Wound Assessment Tool and ImageJ® software, pre- and post-intervention. The intervention protocol was performed twice a week for 7 weeks. Photobiomodulation was performed twice a week for 7 weeks with a cluster that has a central 660 nm laser spot, four 658 nm LED spots and four 858 nm LED spots, with an energy of 4.18 J/cm² per spot. The elastic bandages were applied to promote support and approximation of the tissue around the surgical wound.

RESULTS

Significant reduction in lesion area after the treatment protocol, when comparing T1 x T3 (p = 0.011), T1 x T4 (p < 0.001) and T2 x T4 (p = 0.003), improvement in general wound conditions (p = 0.007), even in the presence of necrosis.

CONCLUSION

The established protocol demonstrates its potential therapeutic effect on healing complications resulting from breast cancer surgery. The physiotherapeutic approach proposed in this study proved to be effective in the recovery from surgical wound complications, with a direct impact on the patient's health status and continuity of cancer treatment. Furthermore, this protocol becomes an alternative for the treatment of these complications, reducing the need for new interventions, which has a direct impact on the patient's physical and emotional health.