Joint publication in Laser Partner and Laser World 
(www.laser.nu/lllt/lllt_editorial.htm)

Miroslav Prochazka, Member of EMLA Parliament, Prague, CZ

Premysl Fryda, Member of Emla Parliament, Prague, CZ

 

At the end of this May the 8th International Congress of the European Medical Laser Association (EMLA) together with the 1st Congress of the Medical Laser Association of the Russian Federation took place in Moscow. Both basic scientific research in laser medicine and specific aspects of the use of invasive and non-invasive laser techniques in medicine of the 21st century were the main topics of the event, not leaving out also photodynamic therapy, lasers in veterinary medicine and other disciplines.

It was possible to see most of the celebrities of contemporary laser medicine from all over the World among invited guests, but, to the detritment of the cause, some of invited foreign guests had not managed to arrive. However, some of the papers presented by Russian colleagues and doctors and scientists from countries of former Soviet Union, who only scarsely appear at congresses in Western Europe, counterbalanced this handicap very well. Intellectual potentials of these countries must not be neglected, and neither can be neglected exemplary efforts to bring mathematic analyses of results in their works. Now, when working with experimental animal models becomes often very problematic in the West, a surprisingly high number of papers, containing a good and qualitative as well as quantitative adequate analysis of these valuable experiments, can only be appreciated. Furthermore, some of the works clearly indicated their relation to military science, where laser technology undoubtedly witnesses even a bigger boom than it does in medicine...

The congress was rather demanding as far as financial point of view is concerned, regardless to actual prices of air tickets to Moscow, as participation and other fees represented a high portion of participants` expenditures, which might probably influence the number of foreign guests at the end. However, today`s Moscow does not count among cheapest World`s capital cities. It might also be for financial reasons that made some of the participants to think of not participating in rather rich social programme, inclusive of, among others, an opera in the Great Theatre (Bolshoi Teater) or an excursion to the Chamber of Diamonds in the Kremlin Armory (Kremlyevskaya Oruzheynaya Palata). Accomodation was on a decent level, even though some of the participants could make slight remarks upon it from time to time, however they mostly recalled their student years in university dormitories. Khorosho.

 We could be only positively surprised by Moscow itself, by its clean and good looking streets. When comparing with the old times, the change is just great. Old sights are kept in excellent repair, and visiting some of the recent  monuments, such as a giant memorial to Peter the Great on an artificial islet in the middle of the Moscow River or the newly built biggest Orthodox Temple of Christ the Redeemer, on the roof domes and inner decorations of which as much as 56 tons of gold was alegedly used, is a tremendous experience. Moscow Metro has come alive with numerous advertising billboards, old flaking GUM has changed into hypermodern shopping mall with luxury brand stores, close to the Red Square several-strorey underground free time and shopping center with tens of restaurants has been built, with American fast-food places neighboring Russian, Chinese, Japanese and Indian restaurants, or even a typical Czech Good Soldier Svejk´s Pub with genuine Czech beer. You can buy quite a few souvenirs at the Old Arbat, in the stands there are Pokémons and Barbie dolls standing on the shelf with classical Russian matryoshkas and busts of Lenin. Vodka is still a traditional drink, young Moscovites however walk the streets today with a cellular phone in one hand and a bottle of beer in the other one.

However, let us get back to the Congress itself. Three days of lectures in three separate halls coverred the whole spectrum of today´s laser medicine. Scientific part of the Congress was openned by valuable speech of Toshio Oshiro of Japan resuming his experience with more than 41 thousand cases treated with laser during the last 27 years. Shimon Rochkind of Israel then addressed the congress with his latest paper on results of double-blind studies on laser treatment of peripheral nerves, evidencing motor and sensory functions improvement after LLLT. The second day was mainly devoted to possibilities of the use of laser in ophtalmology.

There was a series of papers aimed at laser treatment of tinnitus, too. A Swedish dentist Jan Tunér claimed that tinnitus can also fall in dental pathologies and that the character of the unwanted noise can be, in some cases, changed by LLLT releasing tension of facial muscles or posture of the jaw. Czech duo Tejnska and Prochazka presented their classical work on non-invasive laser therapy of tinnitus (see Clinixperience No. 4/2000) enriched with their new findings based on their long-term follow of the patients suffering from this disease. Their way of treatment of tinnitus through massive irradiation of meatus and mastoideus with sufficient amount of laser energy has been supported by experience of Lutz Wilden of Germany whose paper covered the issue of laser treatment of diseases of inner ear as a whole.

The congress also covered topics of oncology, photodynamic therapy, and basic science and theoretical aspects of laser interaction with living tissue. Rene-Jean Bensadoun of France picked up his earlier study on chemo- and radiation-induced mucositis (see Clinixperience No. 24/2001) and informed about new scoring systems allowing better evaluation and comparison between individual studies and protocols on efficacy of LLLT in the overall treatment of cancer. Voinov of Russia informed about research on quantitative tests for individual laser energy doses control through fluorescent albuminous test allowing registration of energy overdose. Proper dosage of laser energy was also the main topics of Jan Bjordal`s work dealing with pain reduction after direct irradiation of chronic joint disorders (see Clinixperience No.13/2000).

Pain management and treatment of medial and lateral epicondylitis was the main subject of the paper of Zlatko Simunovic and Tatjana Trobonjaca (Laser centers in Switzerland and Croatia). A multicenter, double-blind and placebo controlled study on more than 300 patients has proven efficacy of LLLT in the management of this disease as well as of many other sport injuries. Simunovic and Trobonjaca also compared results of polarized light and therapeutic laser on lateral epicondylitis. According to their results, over 40 % of patients irradiated with laser beam achieved 100 % pain relief and adequately restored functional ability, whilst none of the second group of patients reported total pain relief after repeated treatments with polarized light. Polarized light and its thorough spectral and power analysis was the main subject of Navratil and Kolarova (Czech Republic), being supported by a governmental grant agency. Navratil and Kymplova also highly evaluated the effect of LLLT in combination with systemic enzymotherapy on specific pathologies of locomotive organs.

Russian authors have practically all known invasive and non-invasive lasers at their disposal. There are numerous specialized laser centers in the country, and practicing the whole spectrum of laser applications on very extensive numbers of patients brings significantly high value of published papers as far as statistics is concerned. The lecture of the President of the congress Vladimir Mikhailov of Russia called "The Past, Present and Future of Laser Therapy in Russia" fascinated all participants with the scope of laser therapy in this country, stating that there are some 1.5 million patients treated with laser every year. Apart from what we would call traditional laser therapy (wound healing, pain management, neurosurgery etc.) there were interesting new LLLT applications reported by Russian authors, such as laser treatment of children suffering from respiratory allergies, or improvement of immunity of organism by irradiation of blood, raising efficciency of sportsmen by LLLT and others. Furthermore there were numerous applications which some of us could consider either controversial (LLLT on schizofrenic patients) or interesting especially from the point of view of their title rather than of validity of their results (Laser Therapy of Sexual Disorders in Women and Men).

In the accompanying industrial exhibition visitors could see many Russian firms presenting a pleiad of invasive and therapeutic laser devices, some of them with interesting technical conceptions (for instance a vacuum erection aid combined with a laser). Against strong Russian competiton, traditional participants - Swiss Lasotronic with its series of pocket therapy lasers, and Czech MediCom presenting its production line of sophisticated lasers and laser scanners - were successfully defending the positions of "the rest of the World".

The congress was closed by the meeting of the Board of Directors of EMLA, moderated by EMLA President Tatjana Trobonjaca and EMLA secretary Rene-Jean Bensadoun. The main topics of the meeting were discussion on new modalities of educational activity of EMLA,  unified European training certificate, and the final form and contents of the official EMLA journal. In this context it should be mentioned that Laser Partner has repeatedly offered to become the official paper of the Association. The Board of Directors set the following 9th International Congress of the European Medical Laser Association will take place at the end of October 2002 in Vienna, Austria. Spasibo, dosvidania.