Premium
Infrared laser bone ablation
Author(s) -
Nuss Roger C.,
Fabian Richard L.,
Sarkar Rajabrata,
Puliafito Carmen A.
Publication year - 1988
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/lsm.1900080408
Subject(s) - laser , ablation , materials science , laser ablation , continuous wave , infrared , bone tissue , biomedical engineering , optics , medicine , physics
The bone ablation characteristics of five infrared lasers, including three pulsed lasers (Nd:YAG, λ = 1,064 μm; Hol:YSGG, λ = 2.10 μm; and Erb:YAG, λ = 2.94 μm) and two continuous‐wave lasers (Nd:YAG, λ = 1.064 μm; and CO 2 , λ = 10.6 μm), were studied. All laser ablations were performed in vitro, using moist, freshly dissected calvarium of guinea pig skulls. Quantitative etch rates of the three pulsed lasers were calculated. Light microscopy of histologic sections of ablated bone revealed a zone of tissue damage of 10 to 15 μm adjacent to the lesion edge in the case of the pulsed Nd:YAG and the Erb:YAG lasers, from 20 to 90 μm zone of tissue damage for bone ablated by the Hol:YSGG laser, and 60 to 135 μm zone of tissue damage in the case of the two continuous‐wave lasers. Possible mechanisms of bone ablation and tissue damage are discussed.