Blue Light Photobiomodulation as treatment for peristomal skin disorders: case series

Abstract

Introduction. Keeping the peristomal skin intact proves to be a challenge for stoma patients and the health care teams that work with them. Peristomal skin complications are shown to affect 36.3% to 73.4% of patients. They are often particularly difficult to treat with topical therapies since the topical medications available are cream-based or ointment type formulations that don’t allow for perfect adhesion of the pouching system to the abdomen’s skin. In this study a preliminary evaluation of the effectiveness of Blue Light Photobiomodulation in the treatment of peristomal skin disorders was performed Methods. Patients carrying ostomy with lesions of types L2, L3, L4, L5, LX (SACS 2.0 classification5) that had not experienced an improvement in 4 weeks of standard therapy were selected for Blue Light therapy. Blue Light treatment was performed twice a week for 4 weeks, in addition to standard therapy. Tissue repair was evaluated through Wound Bed Score and pain reduction. Results. All the 11 patients enrolled responded to Blue Light treatment with an average WBS improvement of 8.3 points and a significant reduction in pain. Blue Light Photobiomodulation proved decisive in activating the healing process in three patients with pyoderma gangrenous. Conclusions. The positive clinical results suggests that Blue Light Photobiomodulation could be a promising tool in the management of peristomal skin lesions.

Keywords

• peristomal skin disorders
• photobiomodulation
• blue light
• wound bed score