PURPOSE: We hypothesized that rotator cuff patients would see dramatic pain reduction after linear polarized near infrared irradiation of the rotator cuff muscles. SUBJECTS: The subjects of this study were 30 rotator cuff injury patients who visited a hospital's rehabilitation treatment room from September to December 2011. Irradiation was administered three times per week by a single operator in order to minimize variables affecting this study. METHODS: The subjects were randomly allocated to either an experimental group (range of motion exercise and then irradiation) and a control group (range of motion exercise only). RESULTS: The numbers of males and females were 19 and 21, respectively. The average age of the experimental group was 46 +/- 4.34 years old and that of the control group was 46.93 +/- 6.17. There were no statistical differences in the demographic characteristics of the two groups. The experimental group's pain was found to be significantly less severe than that of the control group after the intervention. The experimental group's blood flow velocity was faster than that of the control group, but the difference was not statistically significant. CONCLUSION: This study showed that super lizer irradiation was effective at reducing rotator cuff pain. The irradiation also increased blood flow volume. However, a blood flow volume increase was also observed when joint exercise was performed, which suggests that blood flow volume increase was not a treatment effect of the irradiation. Super lizer appears to be effective at reducing the pain of rotator cuff patients.

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