Investigation of water spray to reduce collateral thermal damage during laser resection of soft tissue

To reduce unwanted collateral thermal damage to surrounding tissue and organs during laparoscopic laser dissection (cw, wavelength: 1.9μm) of porcine liver water spray was used. Size and amount of the produced water droplets of the water spray were photographed by short time imaging and analyzed by imaging software. At in vivo measurements on fresh porcine liver the depth of thermal damage was reduced by 85 % with water spray and the lateral size of thermal damage at the tissue surface could be reduced by 67%. This results show that especially for laparoscopic laser surgery water spray application might be a useful tool to avoid unwanted collateral thermal damage.