Intense pulsed light system in combination with contact cooling is a useful tool for treating photodamaged skin. It can emit broadband light, and target different kind of pigment in skin. But the pressure on skin often influences the temperature field distribution inside the skin when the treatment head contacts skin. In this paper, we assumed the pressure on skin would cause the changes of thermal diffusivity and optical absorption coefficient. Under these assumptions, the temperatures inside skin induced by intense pulsed light system with contact cooling were modeled using Monte Carlo method and explicit finite difference bioheat conduction equation. The results suggest that pressure imposed on skin surface should be taken into account when using pulsed light system with contact cooling to treat lesions inside the skin.

Date Published: 11 January 2008
PDF: 5 pages
Proc. SPIE 6826, Optics in Health Care and Biomedical Optics III, 68260S (11 January 2008); doi: 10.1117/12.757095

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 6826:
Optics in Health Care and Biomedical Optics III
Xingde Li; Qingming Luo; Ying Gu, Editor(s)