Clinical ultrafast laser surgery: Recent advances and future directions

Christopher L. Hoy, Onur Ferhanoǧlu, Murat Yildirim, Ki Hyun Kim, Sandeep S. Karajanagi, Ka Man Carmen Chan, James B. Kobler, Steven M. Zeitels, Adela Ben-Yakar

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

120 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Ultrafast pulsed lasers can be used to achieve remarkable precision during surgical ablation. Through nonlinear interactions with tissue, ultrafast lasers can provide a largely non-Thermal mechanism of ablation and a unique ability to create targeted damage within bulk tissue. These advantages havemade ultrafast lasers the ideal surgical tool for various novel applications in ophthalmology. Clinical adoption of ultrafast lasers in other surgical applications remains limited in part due to the lack of a means for fiber delivery of ultrafast laser pulses as a flexible, hand-held surgical endoscope. This review provides an overview of the recent advances in bringing this unique surgical tool into the clinic.We discuss fundamental mechanisms and limitations of ultrafast laser ablation, novel techniques for overcoming these limitations, the current state of clinical applications, and conclude with our recent efforts in developing fiber-coupled probes for flexible ultrafast laser surgery and imaging.

Original languageEnglish
Article number6683019
JournalIEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics
Volume20
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Mar 2014
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2013 IEEE.

Funding

Manuscript received July 16, 2013; revised August 29, 2013; accepted August 30, 2013. Date of current version December 12, 2013. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation under Grants BES-0548673, CBET-1014953, and Career Award CBET-0846868, as well as a grant from the Texas Ignition Fund by the University of Texas Board of Regents.

FundersFunder number
University of Texas Board of Regents
National Science FoundationBES-0548673, CBET-0846868, CBET-1014953

    Keywords

    • Biomedical Optical Imaging.
    • Laser Ablation
    • Nonlinear Optics
    • Surgery

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