Medicine

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Page ID: 74495

Carol Korzeniewski
Analytical Sciences Digital Library

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Lasers in Medicine ^{a, 8}

Many applications developed from the ability of a laser to produce localized heating. In surgical procedures, for example, the heat from a laser can cauterize and thereby reduce bleeding as tissue is cut
The LASIK eye surgical procedure employs a laser to reshape corneal tissue by ablation.
In the treatment of pigmented regions of tissue or bone, the laser wavelength is sometimes selected to maximize the absorption of radiation.
Lasers assist in disease diagnosis. They are employed in tissue biopsy and are essential parts of instruments used in screening. Laser microscopy ^b,c,d produces images that enable microscopic areas of interest to be visualized.
Medical applications take advantage of the broad spectrum of laser types. The varied procedures have different requirements for wavelength, power and pulsed versus continuous wave output.

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References — Medical Applications of Lasers

F. J. Duarte (Ed.), Tunable Laser Applications, Second Edition (CRC, New York, 2009).
http://www.rp-photonics.com/laser_microscopy.html
www.microscopyu.com/articles/confocal/index.html
Science, Special Issue on Biological Imaging, 300(5616), 2003.