Safety considerations and safety protocol for laser surgery

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1984

Abstract

Laser safety depends on precise knowledge of the physics of each laser and tissue effects in a constantly changing environment. The minimum requirement for certification in laser usage at any hospital should include a 'hands-on' course that includes basics in laser physics and usage of the laser in an animal laboratory. This usually means at least 5 hours of didactics and 5 hours of laboratory and observation of a few clinical cases performed by a trained physician. It is best to precept for some time, as understanding and using lasers depend on the amount of usage and quality of supervision. In this article focusing on laser safety, the most common lasers used in surgery and medicine are used to illustrate safety principles: the CO2, Nd:YAG, and argon lasers.

Publication Title

Surgical Clinics of North America

Volume

64

Issue

5

First Page

851

Last Page

859

Comments

This article was published in Surgical Clinics of North America, Volume 64, Issue 5, Pages 851-859.

The published version is not available online.

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