ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Neurol.
Sec. Neurorehabilitation
Clinical efficacy of ultra-laser irradiation combined with gabapentin on elderly patients with cervical spondylotic radiculopathy
Provisionally accepted
- The First People's Hospital of Fuyang District of Hangzhou, Hangzhou, China
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Objective: Cervical spondylotic radiculopathy is the most prevalent form of cervical spondylosis. This study aimed to investigate the clinical efficacy of ultra-laser irradiation combined with gabapentin for treating elderly patients with cervical spondylotic radiculopathy, providing a basis for optimizing treatment strategies. Methods: In this single-blind randomized controlled trial, 160 elderly patients diagnosed at our hospital from March to June 2025 were assigned (1:1) to ultra-laser irradiation plus gabapentin or gabapentin alone (80 per group). Pain was assessed with the Numerical Rating Scale (NRS) and health status with the EQ-5D at baseline and after three courses of treatment (30 sessions in total). Adverse events were recorded. Results: Baseline NRS scores were similar between groups. After treatment, the between-group difference in NRS improvement was 1.90 points (95% CI 1.64–2.16; P<0.001) favoring the combination. The between-group difference in EQ-5D change was 0.08 (95% CI 0.04–0.12; P<0.001). Patients who experienced at least one adverse event accounted for 12.5% (10/80) in the combination group and 42.5% (34/80) in the gabapentin-only group (χ²=18.06, P<0.001). Conclusions: Ultra-laser irradiation combined with gabapentin reduced pain, improved health-related quality of life, and was associated with fewer short-term adverse events compared with gabapentin alone. Confirmation with longer follow-up, sham-controlled designs, and cost-effectiveness evaluation is warranted.
Keywords: elderly patients, Cervical spondylotic radiculopathy, ultra-laser irradiation, gabapentin, pain relief
Received: 04 Sep 2025; Accepted: 10 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yu, Sun and Liu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Zhou Yu, yuz0531@163.com
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