Lasers in surgery and medicine
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Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Evaluation of topical anesthetics by laser-induced sensation: comparison of EMLA 5% cream and 40% lidocaine in an acid mantle ointment.
Current techniques for assessing local anesthetics (e.g., pin-prick test) cannot elicit a specific afferent activity without contamination from mechanosensitive receptors. This study was aimed to validate the use of non-scarring laser pulses as a reproducible method to assess effectiveness of topical anesthetics by comparing EMLA 5% cream and 40% lidocaine ointment. ⋯ Non-scarring laser pulses are reliable and reproductive pain inducers for assessing topical anesthetics showing a low intra-individual variation. This technique demonstrated that EMLA 5% cream is significantly more effective than 40% lidocaine ointment.
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Comparative Study
Comparison of dermal and epithelial approaches to laser tissue soldering for skin flap closure.
Prior studies of laser tissue soldering (LTS) of epithelial skin have shown poor wound strength in the short-term; however, we hypothesize that greater tensile strength and healing properties will result from directing laser energy to the dermal aspect of the skin. The current study compares wound strength and histology in a rat skin flap model of epithelial and dermally applied LTS. ⋯ Our results show that skin flap wound healing after dermal LTS is superior to epithelial LTS and emphasizes the importance of site specificity in the utilization of this operative technique in reconstructive surgery.