Acoustic online monitoring of IR laser ablation of burnt skin

Kester Nahen; Werner Eisenbeiss; Alfred Vogel

doi:10.1117/12.386325

19 May 2000 Acoustic online monitoring of IR laser ablation of burnt skin

Kester Nahen, Werner Eisenbeiss, Alfred Vogel

Proceedings Volume 3916, Biomedical Optoacoustics; (2000) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.386325
Event: BiOS 2000 The International Symposium on Biomedical Optics, 2000, San Jose, CA, United States

Abstract

In burn surgery necrotic tissue has to be removed prior to skin grafting. Tangential excision causes high blood loss and destruction of viable tissue. Pulsed IR laser ablation can overcome these problems because of its high precision and the superficial coagulation of the remaining tissue. We realized an acoustic on-line monitoring system for a selective removal of necrotic tissue that is based on the detection of the energy of the acoustic signal produced during ablation. We developed a PC based system for data acquisition and real-time data analysis running at laser repetition rates of more than 30 Hz, and studied free- running Er:YAG laser ablation of burned skin and stacked gelatin samples which served as reproducible tissue models. Spectral analysis of the ablation noise showed that the optimum tissue specificity of the acoustic energy can only be achieved if the bandwidth of the acoustic transducer range up to more than 300 kHz. We were able to detect the boundary between gelatin layers of different water content by applying a threshold criterion for the relative increase of the acoustic energy with respect to the first laser pulse at each ablation site. Healthy and burned parts of skin samples as well as necrotic and viable tissue layers in second degree burns could be discriminated, in agreement with the result of histologic examinations. Superficial vascular structures could be distinguished fro surrounding burned tissue with good spatial resolution.

Citation Download Citation

Kester Nahen, Werner Eisenbeiss, and Alfred Vogel "Acoustic online monitoring of IR laser ablation of burnt skin", Proc. SPIE 3916, Biomedical Optoacoustics, (19 May 2000); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.386325

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