Sumo wrestling is a very powerful and competitive contact sport played by extremely fit and highly trained competitors. Due to the extremely competitive nature of the sport and the required training, injuries are common both during training and the actual competition. Long-term lay-up of the competitor has to be avoided in order to maintain the level of muscle tone and mental concentration generated by the grueling training, so postinjury recovery time is kept to a minimum. A noninvasive therapy is therefore required, and the recent interest in the successful application of low level laser therapy (LLLT) in pain attenuation for a large number of pain types suggested that it might offer a new tool for sumo-related injuries. The current trial, with ten sports university sumo wrestlers, examined the effect of LLLT on injuries of the knee (five subjects) and foot (five subjects), using laser speckle flowmetry to assess the possible increase in superficial blood flow which has been associated with both pain attenuation and accelerated wound healing. An 830 nm 60 mW GaAlAs diode LLLT system was applied on one point for 5 min (approximately 15 J/cm 2 ), and laser speckle flowmetry was performed before, during, immediately after, at 30 min and 60 min after irradiation. Decreased blood flow was seen intrairradiation, but an increase, significant in 7 of the 10 subjects was seen immediately postirradiation. This was maintained at significantly elevated levels in 4 subjects, while the remaining six decreased slightly, but in all ten subjects elevated levels of superficial blood flow were seen at one hour postirradiation, compared with preirradiation. LLLT is noninvasive, easy to apply, well tolerated and adverse side effect free. It is suggested that, following further trials to elucidate dosimetry and possible wavelength specificity, LLLT may well offer an exciting new tool to the sports clinician treating injured sumo wrestlers.

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