Proceedings Article | 1 May 1991
Proc. SPIE. 1424, Lasers in Orthopedic, Dental, and Veterinary Medicine
KEYWORDS: Optical fibers, Medicine, Surgery, Laser drilling, Fiber lasers, Bone, Laser ablation, Excimer lasers, Laser cutting, Pulsed laser operation
In order to optimize bone and cartilage ablation, various excimer laser systems at 308 nm wavelength (pulse width 28 ns, 60 ns, 300 ns) and tapered fibers (core diameter 400 micrometers , 600 micrometers , 1000 micrometers ) were combined. By varying the major parameters such as fluence, pulselength, repetition rate, fiber diameter, medium, manner of application (drilling, cutting); analysis was made of the interaction of the excimer laser beam with different organic material (meniscus, bone tissue). More than 300 cuts and drillings have been realized with different parameters. The ablation rate mainly depends on fluence, repetition rate and pulse duration. The achieved ablation rate was 3 micrometers /pulse in bone. The drilling speed of the meniscus was 6 mm/s. The samples showed no carbonization at all, when being cut or drilled in liquid medium. This might be a breakthrough in fiber guided excimer laser surgery. From these and further experiments the authors obtained the dosimetry, which will be the basis for the elaboration of necessary operation guidelines for accident surgery.
