Investigation of different modalities of laser delivery for skin welding

Abstract

980-nm laser skin welding studies have been performed since 2005 by our group and promising results were obtained. As a continuation of that study, in this current research, it was aimed to compare 2 different application methods by histological and mechanical tests. 1-cm long, 6 incisions were welded with 980-nm diode laser by two different applications: high power (6W-400ms) and low power (0.5W–5s). Throughout 21-day healing period, incision were removed from dorsal skin of Wistar rats under anesthesia on control days (1st, 4th, 7th, 14th and 21st) for histology and mechanical tests. Closure index, thermally altered areas, epidermal thickness and granulation areas of H&E stained samples were calculated. Breaking point of incisions during mechanical tensile test that has 5 mm / min crosshead speed was noted. In this study, effects of high (6W–400ms) and low power (0.5W–5s) applications of same energy level (2.5J) 980-nm diode laser irradiation on skin tissue was shown.