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Effect of Pulse Duration on Wound Healing Using a CO 2 Laser
Author(s) -
Fortune D. Scott,
Huang Shan,
Soto Joe,
Pennington Brent,
Ossoff Robert H.,
Reinisch Lou
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
the laryngoscope
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.181
H-Index - 148
eISSN - 1531-4995
pISSN - 0023-852X
DOI - 10.1097/00005537-199806000-00012
Subject(s) - wound healing , laser , pulse duration , ultimate tensile strength , pulse (music) , materials science , medicine , buccal administration , biomedical engineering , surgery , optics , dentistry , composite material , physics , detector
The authors investigated wound healing of incisions in the buccal mucosa of a canine model created using a CO 2 laser with a short pulse structure (60 μs, 100 μs, and 120 μs) rather than a conventional continuous wave structure in a shuttered mode. The tissue from 10 animals was evaluated histologically and with tensiometry acutely and at postoperative days 3, 7, and 14. A Bonferroni‐Dunn corrected ANOVA analysis at a 95% significance level was used to compare the effect of pulse duration on histologic morphology and wound tensile strength. The data indicate that shorter laser pulse durations create less lateral thermal injury ( p < .009) and wounds with greater tensile strength ( p < .005), resulting in earlier wound healing. The results also show that heat, sufficient to damage tissue, was conducted to adjacent tissue during laser pulses of 100 μs and longer. These results demonstrate that surgical CO 2 lasers with a short pulse structure of approximately 60 μs or less could offer more prompt wound healing while maintaining the advantages of a 10.6‐μm wavelength laser.