At the first time, the CO2 laser was utilised in infective neurosurgical pathology as a surgical cutting instrument to remove inflammatory pseudomembranes in chronic osteomyelitis, and as a vaporising instmment on the dura mater surface. Successively, the instrument, defocused and at a low power, was used for prolonged and diffuse photo coagulation ofthe surgical cavity, particularly, ofthe dural surface and ofthe osteomyelitic bone edges, with the aim to sterilise tissues. So, we saw a shortening of the average time of wound healing and a lack of recurrence of the septic pathology. Then, we have treated, with CO2 laser, intracranial infective pathology: i.e. primary abscesses, capsulated or not, circumscribed purulent encephalitis, secondary abscesses in surgical cavities (patients operated for intracranial hematomas and tumors). In these cases we have obtained a lack of septic recurrences and an improvement ofneurological post-operative course. Thank to these results, we have continued to use laser in infective pathology; for giving an experimental support to these results we have carried on researches in vivo (on the experimental animal) to see the interaction between the laser and inflammatory tissue, and in vitro (on bacterial culture: in solid and liquid media) to see the laser effect on the bacterial cell. The bacterial cell has been also sensibiized to the photo dynamic effect of the laser (Argon, He-Ne), with hematoporphyrin. The goal of these experiments is to understand the role of thermal, photochemical, and mechanic resonance laser effects in the interaction between laser radiation and bacterial cell.

Date Published: 3 December 1996
PDF: 5 pages
Proc. SPIE 2922, Laser Applications in Medicine and Dentistry, (3 December 1996); doi: 10.1117/12.260702

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 2922:
Laser Applications in Medicine and Dentistry
Gregory B. Altshuler; Fausto Chiesa; Herbert J. Geschwind M.D.; Raimund Hibst; Neville Krasner M.D.; Frederic Laffitte; Giulio Maira; Reinhard Neumann; Roberto Pini; Hans-Dieter Reidenbach; Andre Roggan; Montserrat Serra I Mila, Editor(s)