Page 172 - Veterinary Laser Therapy in Small Animal Practice

158 Veterinary Laser Therapy in Small Animal Practice

Do need
1. Power output of at least 7 W (average, not just peak!), preferably 12–15 W: to improve penetration and
shorten treatment times, especially in the case of deep tissues and broad areas.
2. Quality diodes with long manufacturer warranties. Diodes should produce light in the infrared spectrum
and cover at least 800–920 nm, plus a red aiming/therapeutic beam, and ideally be able to work with
multiple wavelengths simultaneously.
3. Interchangeable treatment heads and/or a built-in way to change the beam cross-section to modify power
density, cover different areas, and treat from a distance without losing power density.
4. Easy and light to carry around, and battery-operated. A bigger device does NOT mean it is more
powerful, and older, lower-power, primitive lasers were actually huge. Size doesn’t mean quality.
5. Clear, intuitive software that is easy to update (best if it auto-updates via WiFi) and easy to customize to
meet your patients’ (and your clinic’s) individual needs.
6. Ability to work both in continuous wave and pulsed mode, and able to pulse over a broad range of
frequencies (at least greater than 10,000 Hz).
7. Reliable and accessible support. Although this book (we hope) helps you in a substantial way, it
is important to have training, and clinical and technical support, from either the manufacturing/
distributing company or other professionals. Dependable technical support is always necessary at some
point; even the best laser will need check-ups/repairs throughout its lifetime.

Don’t need
1. A tablet with fancy graphics as a giveaway: yes it is fancy, yes it may have some value in initially

educating your clients, but don’t let it change your focus of attention away from what’s important in the
laser.
2. A sales rep telling you a well-powered laser is dangerous because you will burn your patient. This

scare tactic is the most common argument among people selling low-power devices and does drive me
mad, because after thousands of treatments I have never ever been in that situation. You just need to
understand the kind of tool you have in your hands (and you’d better after reading this book!).
3. A treatment menu with hundreds of options making you think you are choosing very specific settings

for your patients, when actually half of them lead you to the same parameters. What is important is to
understand why you are choosing what you choose. Do the thinking, don’t just let the machine tell you
what to do, because you should know better. If you do not want to do any thinking, you’ve wasted your
time reading this book.

of time to treat a small laparotomy incision as the worksheet is very useful and easy to program to simu-
spine and hips of a Labrador. Consider also who late different scenarios. Your monthly laser revenue will
is going to perform treatments, i.e. vets vs. techni- be about four times the weekly revenue, and if you sub-
cians/nurses. Although the diagnosis and treatment tract your lease/monthly payment for the device, you
plan should always be carried out by a veterinarian, will estimate the monthly profit. A good laser should
a well-trained nurse can apply the laser treatment, have a long working life and, if your plan is properly
once you decide the treatment parameters, area, implemented, give you a substantial profit each year.
and frequency of treatment.
10.2 Laser safety and contraindications
So you can estimate the weekly laser revenue by mul-
tiplying the number of wound/DJD/otitis/acute trauma/ Oddly enough, one of the most appropriate tenets of
post-op cases you see by the price you would charge for laser safety can be stated in terms of firearms: “Don’t
those and the percentage of owners who would agree to pull the trigger until you know what you’re shoot-
try this modality once you tell them about it. An Excel ing at.” (I currently live in the great southern state

REDONDO PRINT (4-COL BLEED).indd 158 08/08/2019 09:48