Abstract
Tissue ablation with erbium:YAG and molmium:YAG lasers has been previously reported for various medical applications: (1) Investigation of the Ho:YAG laser for orthopedic surgery demonstrated effective ablation of joint structure tissues and little residual thermal damage. (2) Due to the high absorption by water of pulsed midinfrared energy, tissue ablation is efficient with minimal thermal side effects. The thulium: YAG laser is similar to the Ho:YAG laser, but this wavelength has a stronger water absorption. (3) The goal of this study was to evaluate the potential of the thulium:YAG laser to ablate knee joint tissues.
© 1992 Optical Society of America
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