Ablation and Separation of Dermis via Ultra-Short Pulsed Laser

Dermal tissue ablation and layer-separation with minimal thermal damage to the surrounding tissue via an ultra-short pulsed (USP) laser has been investigated. At first, a parametric study for wet tissue surface line ablation was investigated. The line features were measured by both microscope and scanning electron microscopy. The dermis ablation threshold and the incubation factor were determined through the line ablation results. It is found that a general microscope may give inflated ablation line width. Following the ablation experiment, histological view of ablated wet tissue samples with different combinations of laser parameters has been undertaken to obtain proper laser parameters for tissue separation with minimal thermal damage. The separation of a whole piece of wet dermal tissue into two thin layers was presented. A thin dermal tissue layer pushing to 220 μm thickness was obtained.