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Surgeons Weld Wounds Shut With Surgical Laser

Posted by samzenpus on from the amazing-laser dept.

Ruach writes "The promise of medical lasers goes beyond clean incisions and eye surgery: Many believe that lasers should be used not just to create wounds but to mend them too. Abraham Katzir, a physicist at Tel Aviv University, has a system that may just do the trick and is proving successful in its first human trials."

3 of 151 comments (clear)

  1. So Trek's closing-wounds-with-beams thing is real? by Michael_gr · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Now that is a surprise. That always struck me as funny, the way they just beamed at some wound and it closed.

  2. Re:The real news by davester666 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Cuz that's what medics want to carry. A large battery pack with a small laser, while humping a guy back to the aid station. Or maybe a gas generator.

    Hell, it could be dual use. As a weapon, it can blind enemy combatants or slice open their skin, but when the enemy gets closer, you bend over a wounded comrade and claim to be a medic, and that it's your laser scalpel/magical healing device.

    --
    Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
  3. Re:The real news by moteyalpha · · Score: 4, Interesting

    You are right on that. My sister was doing laser cellular reconstructive surgery ( Transoral Laser Microsurgery ) 12 years ago with a Neodymium Yttrium Arsenic Garnet ( Nd YAG ) 100 watt continuous laser. Here is a link to that laser created in 1964. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nd-YAG_laser. I would have RTFA, but it was slashdotted already. I still think if a shark did it, that would be news.