Abstract
Laser welding has the potential to become an effective method for wound closure and healing without sutures. Closure of skin incisions by laser welding with a combination of two near-infrared lasers (980 and 1064 nm), was performed for the first time in this study. One centimeter long, full-thickness incisions were made on the Wistar rat's dorsal skin. The efficiencies of laser-welding with different parameters were investigated. Incision-healing, histology examination, and a tensile strength test of incisions were recorded. Laser welding with the irradiance level of 15.9 W/cm 2 for both 980 and 1064-nm lasers and exposure time of 5 s per spot in continuous wave mode yielded a more effective closure and healing with minimal thermal damage, faster recovery, and stronger apposition in comparison with a suturing technique. The conclusion is that skin welding with a combination of two near-infrared diode lasers can be a good candidate for incision closure, and further investigations are in progress for clinical use.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 038001 |
| Journal | Journal of Biomedical Optics |
| Volume | 16 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Mar 2011 |
Funding
This work was supported by the development project of science and technology of Suzhou, China (Project No. SYJG0904) and Special scientific research project of Suzhou Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technology (SIBET), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) (Project No. 091901L090) (L.-J.W.). The rats were obtained from School of Basic Medical Sciences, Jilin University. The authors thank M. S. Chi Chang-liang and M. S. Tang Yu-Zhe for their help during the experiments. We also thank the editor and reviewers for their comments and suggestion.
Keywords
- Diode laser
- Skin closure
- Tensile strength
- Tissue welding
- Wound healing