Surgery with laser focus needs no cut

Researchers from China and Canada have developed a new highly targeted laser device to close blood vessels within human tissue.

Reporting in the US journal Science Advances, they wrote the device has the potential to diagnose diseases such as skin cancer and do precise surgery without cutting the skin.

Using an ultrafast infrared laser beam, it allows imaging of living tissue up to 400 microns for skin tissue and 1 millimeter for brain tissue, according to the researchers from the University of British Columbia in Canada and China's Fujian Normal University.

When applied to treating skin diseases, it allows doctors to pinpoint the exact location of the disease, then diagnose and treat it instantly.

With it, researchers can selectively close blood vessels of varying sizes and close blood vessels within tissue while preserving the overlying superficial ones. Called a "multiphoton excitation microscope", it uses a focused laser beam to aim at the targeted vessel's center, generating localized heat, which, spreading to the wall of the blood vessel, causes it to collapse and close. Although the laser's power density is high, it is only aimed at the focal point, meaning the nearby vessels are unaffected.

The researchers said the device can be used to treat any structure of the body that can be reached by light and requires precise treatment, like nerves or blood vessels in the skin, eyes, brain or other vital areas.

Xinhua