Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

First clinical application of a liquid-core light guide connected to an Er:YAG laser for oral treatment of leukoplakia

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Lasers in Medical Science Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

For medical applications, erbium lasers are usually equipped with articulated mirror arms or special glass fibers. However, only with mirror arms is it so far possible to transmit high average powers or pulse energies in the region of 1 J to achieve suitable energy densities for fast tissue preparation. An alternative to the glass fiber systems mentioned above are liquid-core light guides. An extremely flexible liquid-core light guide was used to connect a dental Er:YAG laser system to an especially adapted dental laser applicator. The core liquid was continuously circulated during laser irradiation to transmit pulse energies up to 1.1 J. A modified laser handpiece was used for exemplary clinical treatment. The experimental setup with the highly flexible light guide was completed successfully, and its ease of handling for a dental surgeon was demonstrated in the clinical treatment of leukoplakia of the oral cheek mucosa. Complete ablation of the epithelium with the laser was performed. One year postoperatively, the patient remains disease-free. This article describes the technical realization of a liquid-core light guide system for medical applications. We report about the first successful clinical treatment of oral hyperkeratosis using this new light guide technology.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. : FEP is the abbreviation for fluorinated ethylene propylene.

  2. : i.e., possible faults in connections between the mechanical components of the pumping unit.

References

  1. Diemer S, Meister J, Jung R, Klein S, Haisch M, Fuss W, Hering P (1997) Liquid-core light guides for near-infrared applications. Appl Opt 36:9075–9082

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Duck FA (1990) Physical properties of tissue. Academic Press, London, pp 319–323

    Google Scholar 

  3. Dickinson MR, Charlton A, King TA, Freemont AJ, Bramley R (1990) Studies of Er:YAG laser interactions with soft tissue. Lasers Med Sci 6:125–131

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Rizoiu IM, DeShazer LG, Eversole LR (1995) Soft tissue cutting with a pulsed 30-Hz Er,Cr:YSGG laser. In: Harrington JA, Harris DM, Katzir A (eds) Biomedical optoelectronic instrumentation. Proc SPIE 2396:273–283

  5. Niemz MH (1996) Laser-tissue interactions—fundamentals and applications. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 149–232

    Google Scholar 

  6. Olmes A, Franke HG, Bänsch E, Lubatschowski H, Raible M, Dziuk G, Ertmer W (1997) Modeling of infrared soft-tissue photoablation process. Appl Phys B 65:659–666

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Meister J, Jung R, Diemer S, Haisch M, Fuss W, Hering P (1996) Advances in the development of liquid-core waveguides for IR application. In: Katzir A, Harrington JA (eds) Biomedical fiber optics. Proc SPIE 2677:120–126

  8. Serafetinides AA, Rickwood KR, Anastassopoulou N, Wang Y, Shi YW, Miyagi M (1997) Pulsed HF laser radiation transmission through fluorocarbon polymer-coated silver hollow glass waveguides. In: Baldini F, Croitoru NI, Dickinson MR, Frenz M, Miyagi M, Pratesi R, Seeger S, Katzir A (eds) Biomedical systems and technologies II. Proc SPIE 3199:94–102

  9. Serafetinides AA, Papayannis AD, Fabrikesi ET, Rickwood KR, Wang Y, Shi YW, Miyagi M, Croitoru NI, Harrington JA, Nubling R (1998) Lasers, waveguides and fibers for 3.0 µm medical applications. In: Carabelas A, Lazzaro PDi, Torre A, Baldacchini G (eds) 2nd GR-I International conference on new laser technologies and applications. Proc SPIE 3423:436–440

  10. Nuebler-Moritz M, Gutknecht N, Sailer HF, Hering P, Prettl W (1997) Ablation of oral mucosa by erbium:YAG and holmium:YAG laser radiation. In: Wigdor HA, Featherstone JD, Rechmann P (eds) Lasers in dentistry III. Proc SPIE 2973:178–188

  11. Klein S, Meister J, Diemer S, Jung R, Fuss W, Hering P (1997) High-power laser waveguide with a circulating liquid core for IR applications. In: Katzir A, Harrington JA (eds) Specialty fiber optics for biomedical and industrial applications. Proc SPIE 2977:155–163

  12. Malitson IH (1965) Interspecimen comparison of the refractive index of fused silica. J Opt Soc Am 55:1205–1209

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Marvin HH (1912) The selective transmission and the dispersion of liquid chlorides. Phys Rev 34:161–186

    Google Scholar 

  14. Malitson IH (1962) Refraction and dispersion of synthetic sapphire. J Opt Soc Am 52:1377–1379

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Meister J (1998) Liquid-core light guides for high-power pulsed laser systems in the infrared spectral range. Doctoral Thesis (in German). Institute of Laser Medicine, Heinrich Heine University Duesseldorf, Germany

  16. Fitzgibbon JJ, Collins JM (1998) High volume production of low loss sapphire optical fibers by Saphikon EFG (edge defined, film-fed growth) method. In: Bogner MS, Charles ST, Grundfest WS, Harrington JA, Katzir A, Lome LS, Vannier MW, Von Hanwehr R (eds) Surgical-assist systems. Proc SPIE 3262: 135–141

  17. Apel C, Franzen R, Meister J, Sarrafzadegan H, Thelen S, Gutknecht N (2002) Influence of the pulse duration of an Er:YAG laser system on the ablation threshold of dental enamel. Lasers Med Sci 17:253–257

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Bongartz J, Hering P (1999) Non-destructive acoustooptical energy monitoring of pulsed laser radiation. LaserOpto 5:37–39

    Google Scholar 

  19. White JM, Chaudhry SI, Kudler JJ, Sekandari N, Schoelch ML, Silverman S Jr (1998) Nd:YAG and CO2 laser therapy of oral mucosal lesions. J Clin Laser Med Surg 16:299–304

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Vivek V, Jayasree RS, Balan A, Sreelatha KT, Gupta AK (2008) Three-year follow-up of oral leukoplakia after neodymium:yttrium aluminium garnet (Nd:YAG) laser surgery. Lasers Med Sci 23:375–379

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Chandu A, Smith ACH (2005) The use of CO2 laser in the treatment of oral white patches: outcomes and factors affecting recurrence. Int J Oral Maxillofac Surg 34:396–400

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Marangoni O, Melato M, Longo L (2005) 808-nm laser with exogenous chromophores for the treatment of benign oral lesions. Photomed Laser Surg 23:324–327

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Eyrich GK, Vogel M, Grätz KW, Pajarola G (2004) CO2-laser treatment of oral leukoplakia (in German). LaserZahnheilkunde 1(3):143–148

    Google Scholar 

  24. Maiorana C, Salina S (2001) Oral soft tissue pathologies: long term evaluation after laser treatment. J Oral Laser Appl 1:20

    Google Scholar 

  25. Deppe H, Horch HH (2007) Laser applications in oral surgery and implant dentistry. Lasers Med Sci 22:217–221

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. Schwarz F, Maraki D, Yalcinkaya S, Bieling K, Böcking A, Becker J (2005) Cytologic and DNA-cytometric follow-up of oral leukoplakia after CO2- and Er:YAG-laser assisted ablation: a pilot study. Lasers Surg Med 37:29–36

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Eyrich GK, Grätz KW (2003) Laser treatment of oral lesions. In: Simunovic Z (ed) Lasers in medicine, surgery and dentistry, vol 3. Vitagraf d.o.o, Rijeka, pp 783–801

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Conservative Dentistry, Periodontology and Preventive Dentistry, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

    Jörg Meister, Rene Franzen & Norbert Gutknecht

  2. Department of Cranio-Maxillofacial Surgery, University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Gerold Eyrich

  3. Department of Mathematics and Technology, RheinAhr Campus, Remagen, Germany

    Jens Bongartz

  4. Institute of Laser Medicine, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Peter Hering

  5. Department of Conservative Dentistry, Periodontology and Preventive Dentistry, RWTH Aachen University, Pauwelsstrasse 30, 52074, Aachen, Germany

    Jörg Meister

Authors
  1. Jörg Meister
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Rene Franzen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Gerold Eyrich
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Jens Bongartz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Norbert Gutknecht
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Peter Hering
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jörg Meister.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Meister, J., Franzen, R., Eyrich, G. et al. First clinical application of a liquid-core light guide connected to an Er:YAG laser for oral treatment of leukoplakia. Lasers Med Sci 25, 669–673 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10103-010-0782-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10103-010-0782-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation