レーザーの外科臨床への応用

Abstract

Recent advance in surgery owes not only to the development of operative techniques but also to the development of instruments which support surgical operations. Operative procuderes consist mainly of incision. hemostasis, and suture, but incision is the reverse procedure to hemostasis, and it has been a dream for surgeons to incise without bleeding. An electric knife, well known as Bobby, is an evolutional instrument which enables us simultaneous incision and coagulation. However, its ability for hemostasis is still limited. Resection of solid organs, especially the liver, sometimes involves much bleeding. Therefore the further development of new methods or instruments have been long-expected to realize safety incision without bleedings. Since the first success in transmission of laser beam was reported by Maiman in 1960, application of laser beam has been attempted in every fields. As a matter of course. introduction of it was tried immediately also in medicine. In surgery, laser beam has been investigated of its availability for a tissue dissector which involves no bleeding, coagulator, or diagnostic and therapeutic instruments. In this article, the history of laser beam during these 30 years and its future aspect will be discussed.