Publications [#245866] of Glenn S. Edwards

Papers Published

1. Edwards, G; Logan, R; Copeland, M; Reinisch, L; Davidson, J; Johnson, B; Maciunas, R; Mendenhall, M; Ossoff, R; Tribble, J, Tissue ablation by a free-electron laser tuned to the amide II band., Nature, vol. 371 no. 6496 (September, 1994), pp. 416-419, ISSN 0028-0836 [doi]
   (last updated on 2024/12/31)

   Abstract:
   Efforts to ablate soft tissue with conventional lasers have been limited by collateral damage and by concern over potential photochemical effects. Motivated by the thermal-confinement model, past infrared investigations targeted the OH-stretch mode of water with fast pulses from lasers emitting near 3,000 nm (refs 1, 7-9). What does a free-electron laser offer for the investigation of tissue ablation? Operating at non-photochemical single-photon energies, these infrared sources can produce trains of picosecond pulses tunable to the vibrational modes of proteins, lipids and/or water. We report here that targeting free-electron laser radiation to the amide II band of proteins leads to tissue ablation characterized by minimal collateral damage while maintaining a substantial ablation rate. To account for these observations we propose a novel ablation mechanism based on compromising tissue through resonant denaturation of structural proteins.