Objectives/hypothesis: The wound healing characteristics of incisions made with the short pulsed CO2 laser tuned to 9.55 microm versus the traditional 10.6 microm were investigated. Previous studies have shown that at 9.55 microm, collagen is targeted more selectively than at 10.6 microm, which results in decreased acute thermal injury patterns. This study investigates the difference in wound healing over time between lasers and compares laser incisions with cold knife techniques.
Study design: Randomized controlled trial using a porcine model.
Methods: Tissue from 10.6-microm and 9.55-microm incisions of 10 piglets was evaluated with histological analysis and tensiometry at 3, 7, 14, and 21 days postoperatively. A Bonferroni-Dunn corrected analysis of variance analysis at a 95% significance level was used to compare the effect of wavelength.
Results: The results demonstrate that although knife incisions are consistently stronger than laser incisions, the 9.55-microm CO2 laser incisions are no stronger than incisions made with the conventional 10.6-microm laser. Furthermore, histological analysis shows no difference in lateral thermal damage between lasers at 3, 7, 14, and 21 days postoperatively. The progression of collagen formation and inflammation does not differ over time.
Conclusion: This study of wound healing using a porcine model demonstrates that the 9.55-microm CO2 laser does not demonstrate an improvement in wound healing over the traditional 10.6-microm CO2 laser. These results may be secondary to the common explosive vaporization mechanism produced by both lasers in the infrared spectrum.