Efficacy of Pulsed High Intensity Laser Therapy in Psoriatic Hand Arthritis

"The study employs a BTL-6000 high-intensity laser therapy (12 W) to apply high intensity laser therapy to deep tissues. high intensity laser therapy therapy uses powerful beams (\>500 mw) to penetrate deeper, delivering high multi-directional energy in a short time. Pulsed laser therapy, a form of high intensity laser therapy therapy, enhances cell metabolism without disrupting it.~High-intensity laser therapy is a safe treatment method consisting of three phases. The first phase involves fast scanning around the wrist, hand, and fingers, with fluencies set at 510, 610, and 710mJ/cm2. The second phase involves holding the handpiece vertically to 90° on 10 fixed points around the metacarpophalangeal and interphalangeal joints, each radiated for 15 seconds, and a total dose of 1500 J. The third phase is the same but at a slower rate, with a total energy of 300 J."

Patients in the control group will receive sham high-intensity laser therapy, where all parameters will be set up without switching on the start button and high intensity laser therapy machine is switched on with a visible light beam only

All patients of the study and control groups will receive the same routine physical therapy program for 30minutes and three times per week for successive eight weeks in the form of hot therapy, stretching and strengthening exercises. Hot therapy, in the form of warm baths for 10minutes, is applied before stretching exercises on the wrist joint and fingers to relieve joint pain and increase the range of motion. Strengthening exercises are in the form of isometric exercise for hand muscles and fingers to maintain muscles strength and joints flexibility