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29 Nov 2002
US researchers use an argon-ion laser to improve the adherence of a skin graft.
Using a laser to attach a skin graft makes it adhere better than traditional methods, say researchers based in the US. The team claims that the light-activated technique, known as photochemical tissue bonding (PTB), could find many uses such as plastic surgery, burn therapy and ulcer management. (Journal of Surgical Research 108 77)
Stitches, staples and tissue glues are the standard methods used in skin grafting today. However, they can be time-consuming and sometimes lead to complications such as scarring and swelling.
Now, Robert Redmond and colleagues from the Wellman Laboratories of Photomedicine say they have an alternative: using the 514 nm output from an argon-ion laser to graft skin back into place.
To test this approach, Redmond's team performed an ex-vivo study on pig skin. The researchers dope the skin graft with a light-sensitive dye known as rose bengal (RB) before performing the procedure. Delivering the laser light through a fiber, the researchers found that an irradiance of 0.56 W/cm2 was enough to join the skin graft without causing heat damage to any of the surrounding tissue.
The graft took 15 minutes at this irradiance. Redmond and colleagues increased the irradiance to 1.68 W/cm2 in an effort to speed up the procedure but this led to thermal damage in the cell.
"The 0.56 W/cm2 irradiance used in this study may be suboptimal," report the authors in their paper. "A lengthy procedure time would limit PTB's use when multiple applications are needed, as in the case of large grafts."
The team is now optimizing the technique to balance the irradiance and treatment time while investigating ways to cool the skin. The authors conclude that: "The current study suggests that thermal effects would not limit PTB's use in clinical practice. Our results suggest that further animal studies on the effects of PTB are warranted."
• Although the exact mechanisms by which RB promotes the graft are not known, the authors speculate that the dye activates the formation of collagen crosslinks.
Author
Jacqueline Hewett is news reporter on Optics.org and Opto & Laser Europe magazine.
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