ABLATION OF NEURAL TISSUE BY SHORT-PULSED LASERS - A TECHNICAL REPORT

The basis for most laser applications in neurosurgery is the conversio n of laser light into heat when the incident laser beam is absorbed by the tissue. Irradiation of neural tissue with laser light therefore l eads to its thermal damage. However, due to the diffusion of hear ener gy into the surrounding tissue, often there is thermal damage to neura l tissue outside the area of the target volume. These are the characte ristics of thermal laser/tissue interaction. In this paper we discuss how we used three different short-pulsed lasers to achieve non-thermal ablation of neural tissue. Three different short-pulsed lasers were u sed to generate ultrashort laser pulses in the picosecond to femtoseco nd range. The interaction of such laser pulses with tissue was predict ed to be non-thermal. The short-pulsed lasers were used for the ablati on of neural tissue using an in vitro calf brain model. The histopatho logical examination of the lesions revealed that the neural tissue had been removed very precisely without any sign of thermal damage to the surrounding tissue.