Premium
Comparison of the thermal tissue effects produced by aged sapphire and silica hemispherical tips
Author(s) -
Royston David D.,
Torres Jorge H.,
Thomsen Sharon,
Sriram P. S.,
Welch Ashley J.
Publication year - 1994
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.1900140112
Subject(s) - sapphire , materials science , thermal conductivity , transmission electron microscopy , thermal , optics , composite material , biomedical engineering , laser , nanotechnology , medicine , physics , meteorology
This study evaluated the performance of sapphire and fused silica hemispherical tips under the same exposure conditions. Lesions produced in the chicken breast and a blood field were sectioned for light and transmission polarizing microscopy. Lesion size and thermal damage area were recorded as a function of the tips accumulated exposure. The tips transmission was measured after every 1,000 J of exposure. Fused silica tips lasted for ∼5,000 J and experienced significant surface and transmission deterioration. The sapphire hemispherical tips lasted for > 12,000 J with no surface and transmission deterioration. Lesions produced with the fused silica tips generally increased in depth with use, and depths of 6 mm were common. Lesions produced by the sapphire tips were subsurface spherical areas of coagulation with the tissue surface relatively intact. This difference in resulting lesions may be attributed to the higher thermal conductivity of sapphire. © 1994 Wiley‐Liss, Inc. This article is a US Government work and, as such, is in the public domain in the United States of America.