A number of diseases are treated using light therapy. These include acne, actinic keratosis, jaundice, Paget’s disease, and psoriasis. Modern light blankets use arrays of LEDs to produce illumination, but light emitted by LEDs can be quite weak compared to light produced by a laser. Photodynamic therapy light lamps, on the other hand, can create painful therapy sessions because of their indiscriminate and intense light.
Texinov Medical Textiles, a company based outside of Lyon, France, with help from the European health consortium PHOS-ISTOS, has announced developing a knitted soft fabric called FLUXMEDICARE that delivers high-intensity laser light directly onto the skin.
The device features optical fibers throughout its body that carry light from an external laser toward the skin. For many uses of the device, a photosensitizer cream is first applied to the skin. The FLUXMEDICARE is then wrapped around the skin. The light activates a reaction between oxygen in the air and the photosensitizer cream, making the skin more sensitive to the light therapy.
The device, being soft and flexible, stays in contact with the skin even on the legs and other body parts that it would have to be wrapped around.
In terms of pain levels, in trials of the FLUXMEDICARE, patients reported nearly unfelt levels of pain when treated with th edevice.
Link: Texinov company homepage…
Via: Photonics21…
