Laser surgery
| Laser surgery | |
|---|---|
| Intervention | |
| MeSH | D053685 |
Laser surgery is surgery that uses a laser (instead of a scalpel) to cut tissue. Examples include the use of a laser scalpel in otherwise conventional surgery, and soft-tissue laser surgery, in which the laser beam vaporizes soft tissue with high water content. Laser resurfacing is a technique in which covalent bonds of a material are dissolved by a laser, a technique invented by aesthetic plastic surgeon Thomas L Roberts, III using CO2 lasers in the 1990s. The CO2 (carbon dioxide) laser remains the gold standard for the soft tissue surgery because of the ease of simultaneous photo-thermal ablation and coagulation (and small blood capillary hemostasis).
Laser surgery is commonly used on the eye. Techniques used include LASIK, which is used to correct near and far-sightedness in vision, and photorefractive keratectomy, a procedure which permanently reshapes the cornea using an excimer laser to remove a small amount of tissue. Types of surgical lasers include carbon dioxide, argon, Nd:YAG laser, and Potassium titanyl phosphate.
A range of lasers such as erbium, dye, and CO2 are used to treat various skin conditions including scars, vascular and pigmented lesions, and for photorejuvenation.
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