Low level laser therapy for treating tuberculosis.

BACKGROUND

The main treatment for tuberculosis is antituberculous drugs. Low level laser therapy is used as an adjunct to antituberculous drugs, predominantly in the former Soviet Union and India.

OBJECTIVES

To compare low level laser therapy plus antituberculous drugs with antituberculous drugs alone for treating tuberculosis.

SEARCH STRATEGY

We searched the Cochrane Infectious Diseases Group Specialized Register (December 2005), CENTRAL (The Cochrane Library 2005, Issue 4), MEDLINE (1966 to December 2005), EMBASE (1974 to December 2005), CINAHL (1982 to December 2005), Science Citation Index (1945 to December 2005), PEDro (1929 to December 2005), the Central Medical Library of Moscow catalogue (1988 to June 2005), the internet, and reference lists of articles. We contacted relevant organizations and researchers for the original version.

SELECTION CRITERIA

Randomized trials comparing low level laser therapy plus antituberculous drugs with antituberculous drugs alone in people with tuberculosis.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS

Two authors independently assessed trial quality and extracted data, including adverse events.

MAIN RESULTS

One randomized controlled trial (130 participants) conducted in India met the inclusion criteria. This trial was poorly reported, with no information on the generation of allocation sequence or allocation concealment. The trial report did not provide details on the group that each of the participants were randomized into or which group those participants that left the trial were from. This precluded the use of its data on time to sputum conversion and other outcome measures for analysis.

AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: The use of low level laser therapy for treating tuberculosis is still not supported by reliable evidence. Researchers need to focus on conducting well-designed randomized controlled trials to justify the continued participation of volunteers for studies of this experimental intervention.