Ref (type)	Population	Outcome, Interventions	Results and statistical analysis	Effect size	Favours
Healing
[77] Systematic review	88 people 2 RCTs in this analysis	Healing rates over 12 weeks 17/44 (39%) with low-level laser treatment 14/44 (32%) with sham treatment	RR 1.21 95% CI 0.73 to 2.03		Not significant
[77] Systematic review 3-armed trial	30 people Data from 1 RCT	Proportion of ulcers healed after 9 months' treatment 12/15 (80%) with laser plus infrared light 5/15 (33%) with non-coherent, unpolarised red light	RR 2.40 95% CI 1.12 to 5.13	Moderate effect size	laser plus infrared light
[79] RCT 3-armed trial	65 people receiving compression and drug treatment	Reduction in area of ulceration 4.25 cm2 (27%) with laser 5.21 cm2 (39%) with sham laser 2.98 cm2 (18%) with no treatment	Reported as not significant P value not reported The RCT may have lacked power to detect clinically important differences		Not significant
[80] [81] RCT 3-armed trial	44 people	Reduction in ulcer size with compression plus low-level laser with compression plus placebo laser with compression alone Absolute results not reported	The RCT reported within-group rather than between-group differences Reported as not significant The RCT may have lacked power to detect clinically important differences		Not significant
[82] RCT 4-armed trial	83 people	Complete healing 3/21 (14%) with low-level laser therapy plus conservative treatment 3/20 (15%) with conservative treatment alone	P value not reported Reported as not significant		Not significant
[83] RCT	34 people with venous leg ulcers	Complete healing 9 weeks 3/18 (17%) with low-level laser therapy 4/16 (25%) with hydrocellular dressing	P = 0.62		Not significant