Wiping away debris between passes during laser surgery: Is it really efficient or causing complications?

Although carbon dioxide laser skin resurfacing offers a controlled and pred ictive tissue ablation, it is not completely without complications, such as cobblestone-like appearance or scar formation. It has been supposed that t hese were the results of thermal loading on overlapped areas. In order to o btain a smoother surface, an experimental study dealing with the effect of wiping procedure between the sessions was carried out. Laser beams were app lied in two sessions to the backs of 20 rats. Between the sessions, the deb ris was wiped away in half and left unwiped in the others. Despite a statis tically higher ablation rate in the wiped group, its surface irregularity w as statistically significant when compared to unwiped group. It is supposed that the amount of debris left on the: surface has the regul atory role in laser application. Because laser beams can be absorbed more b y untreated skipped areas and less by overlapped sites, the second pass can ensure a smoother surface. Considering both benefits and disadvantages, it is concluded that wiping vaporized debris every two passes is the most rel iable laser treatment modality.