Laser-Tissue Interactions

Abstract

The effects created by surgical lasers — namely cutting, vaporizing and coagulation — are all caused by heating of the tissue. Table 2 describes the effects on soft tissue as the temperature increases, from a laser or any other source of heat. The wavelength (color) of the laser is important only in determining how efficiently this heat transfer occurs, and over what volume of tissue. The nature of interaction of all laser light with biological tissue can be described in terms of reflection, transmission, scattering or absorption (Fig. 11).