Laser surgery probe targets individual ca...( AUSTIN TexasMechanical engineering A...),Health
AUSTIN, TexasMechanical engineering Assistant Professor Adela Ben-Yakar at The University of Texas at Austin has developed a laser "microscalpel" that destroys a single cell while leaving nearby cells intact, which could improve the precision of surgeries for cancer, epilepsy and other diseases.
"You can remove a cell with high precision in 3-D without damaging the cells above and below it," Ben-Yakar says. "And you can see, with the same precision, what you are doing to guide your microsurgery."
Femtosecond lasers produce extremely brief, high-energy light pulses that sear a targeted cell so quickly and accurately the lasers' heat has no time to escape and damage nearby healthy cells. As a result, the medical community envisions the lasers' use for more accurate destruction of many types of unhealthy material. These include small tumors of the vocal cords, cancer cells left behind after the removal of solid tumors, individual cancer cells scattered throughout brain or other tissue and plaque in arteries.
A commercially available femtosecond laser system and microscope was developed recently for LASIK and other eye surgeries, but the system's bulk limits its usefulness. Ben-Yakar's laboratory has overcome technological challenges to create a microscope system that can deliver femtosecond laser pulses up to 250 microns deep inside tissue. The system includes a tiny, flexible probe that focuses light pulses to a spot size smaller than human cells.
Ben-Yakar's experimental system and its use to destroy a single cell within layers of breast cancer cells grown in the laboratory is described in the June 23 issue of Optics Express.
Within a few years, Ben-Yakar expects to shrink the probe's 15-millimeter diameter three-fold, so it would match endoscopes used today for laparoscopic surgery. The probe tip she has developed also could be made disposable -- for use operating on people who have infectious diseases or dest
'/>"/>
| Contact: Adela Ben-Yakar ben-yakar@mail.utexas.edu 512-475-9280 University of Texas at Austin Source:Eurekalert |
Related medicine news :
1. Laser Focus World and OIDA Announce OPTOmism: Photonics for the Green Revolution Conference and Exhibition, to be Held May 18-20, 2009 in Santa Clara, CA
2. TRIA Personal Laser Hair Removal System Now Available at Aesthetic Physician Offices
3. Alternative Extends Partnership With Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation
4. Axsun Technologies Announces Strategic Supply Agreement for Integrated OCT Engines with Lantis Laser for Dental Imaging Applications
5. Axsun Technologies Announces Exclusive Cardiac Supply Agreement for Advanced OCT Tunable Lasers with LightLab Imaging
6. Soon to Be Released: Lutronic Announces the MOSAIC eCO2, the Worlds First Smart Fractional CO2 Laser System for Treating Aesthetic and Dermatological Conditions, Will Soon Be Coming to the U.S. Market for Commercial Use
7. Alma Lasers Announces FDA Clearance of the Harmony(XL) Multi-Application System at THE Aesthetic Show 2008
8. Laser Therapy a New Option for Vocal-Cord Cancers
9. Sciton Introduces ProFractional-XC(TM), High-Speed, Dual-Mode Fractional Laser
10. Lutronic Inc. Announces FDA Clearance of Its Spectra VRM III Q-Switched Nd: Yag Laser System for Treating a Broad Spectrum of Dermatological and Aesthetic Conditions
11. MGH researchers report successful new laser treatment for vocal-cord cancer
| Copyright © 2003-2009 Bio-Medicine. All rights reserved. ABOUT | CONTACT US | DISCLAIMER | PRIVACY POLICY | TERMS AND CONDITIONS |  |