Summary:
This paper is the first to report the benefits of CO2 laser treatment for pain control in severe oral chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). A CO2 laser device was used during 17 treatment sessions in four patients. The CO2 laser was applied over the mucosal lesions using 1 W for 2–3 s/1 mm2. This treatment resulted in a consistent and significant decrease in pain, measured using a standard visual analogue scale. These results suggest that the CO2 laser can be used for the alleviation of pain in oral chronic GVHD.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Dr Sharon DM Robinson for the editorial assistance. We would like to thank ESCq/Sharplan/Luxar group – Lumenis™ (OpusDent™) for facillitating the treatment with the Opus20™ device.
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Elad, S., Or, R., Shapira, M. et al. CO2 laser in oral graft-versus-host disease: a pilot study. Bone Marrow Transplant 32, 1031–1034 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bmt.1704272
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bmt.1704272
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