History of Laser Acupuncture: A Narrative Review of Scientific Literature

Background: Laser acupuncture is a relatively young modality in the field of acupuncture, used successfully for the treatment of various conditions since the early 1970s. It has, despite its ∼50 years of existence, already a comprehensive history behind it. This review deals with facts of this history and summarizes the most-important milestones. Materials and Methods: Scientific articles from the PubMed, Google Scholar, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure databases served as research documents. In addition, the research on laser acupuncture history included material published in scientific books. Results: A total of 38 listed articles were identified, 7 of which were considered relevant. In addition to a generally recognized definition of laser acupuncture , the beginnings of laser acupuncture and the first clinical applications worldwide, this review also shows the most-important milestones in the development of this discipline. The latter are, of course, the development of laser acupuncture systems, the first clinical studies, the implementation of multichannel laser acupuncture devices with laser-needle technology, and, ultimately, the combination of laser acupuncture with methods from research on photobiomodulation. Conclusions: Although considerable progress has been made in evaluating this innovative method of laser acupuncture, further research is needed in the coming years and decades.