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Healing of laser incisions in rat dermis: Comparisons of the carbon dioxide laser under manual and computer control and the scalpel
Author(s) -
Howard John,
Arango Pablo,
Ossoff Jake,
Ossoff Robert H.,
Reinisch Lou
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
lasers in surgery and medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.888
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1096-9101
pISSN - 0196-8092
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1096-9101(1997)20:1<90::aid-lsm14>3.0.co;2-d
Subject(s) - carbon dioxide laser , laser , wound healing , dermis , surgery , thermocouple , surgical incision , histology , biomedical engineering , medicine , materials science , laser surgery , anatomy , pathology , optics , composite material , physics
Background and Objective The Computer‐Assisted Surgical Techniques (CAST) program was researched to decrease lateral tissue damage and improve wound healing subsequent to laser incision. CAST differs from the traditional laser because it makes the incision in a discontinuous manner, allowing tissue to cool during the incision process. Study Design/Material and Methods: The transient temperature changes in the tissue adjacent to the incision were measured with a thermocouple in a rat model. The subsequent wound healing was studied with histology and tensiometry. Results The thermal measurements demonstrated that all CAST settings were cooler than the continuous mode of laser incision. However, histology and tensiometric studies showed mixed results. Conclusion This research demonstrates that CAST can be used in future surgical applications with no delay in wound healing as compared to the manually controlled laser. However, this study also finds no decrease in the wound healing time when using the CAST program. Lasers Surg Med 20:90–96, 1997. © 1997 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.