title: In situ monitoring of second-harmonic generation in human corneas to compensate for femtosecond laser pulse attenuation in keratoplasty.
abstract: The application of femtosecond lasers in corneal transplant surgery requires high pulse energies to compensate for the strong optical scattering in pathological corneas. However, excessive energies deteriorate the quality of the incisions. The aim of this study is to demonstrate the dependence of side effects on local radiant exposure, numerical aperture, and tissue properties, to quantify the penetration depth of the laser for individual corneas, and to provide a method for optimizing the energy in the volume of the cornea. We examine histological and ultrastructural sections of clear and edematous corneas with perforating and lamellar incisions performed at different pulse energies. We demonstrate that the augmented energies in edematous corneas may result in unwanted side effects even when using high numerical apertures. The dependence of the laser beam penetration depth on pulse energy is evaluated by histology and an exponential decrease is observed. We show that the penetration length can be determined by evaluating the backscattered second-harmonic emission associated with the nonlinear optical properties of the tissue. This approach represents a noninvasive method for the in situ quantification of the laser beam attenuation, enabling us to adapt the pulse energy accordingly. Experiments using adapted energies show that the side effects are minimized.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'Optique Appliquée, ENSTA-Ecole Polytechnique-CNRS UMR 7639, Chemin de la Hunière, 91761 Palaiseau Cedex, France. valeria.nuzzo@polytechnique.edu
authors.forename: Valeria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Nuzzo
authors.forename: Karsten
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Plamann
authors.forename: Michèle
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Savoldelli
authors.forename: Michele
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Merano
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Donate
authors.forename: Olivier
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Albert
authors.forename: Pedro Felipe
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: Gardeazábal Rodríguez
authors.forename: Gerard
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Mourou
authors.forename: Jean-Marc
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Legeais
mesh_terms: D055592:Biophysical Phenomena; D001703:Biophysics; D003315:Cornea / Q000473:pathology / Q000528:radiation effects / Q000601:surgery*; D015715:Corneal Edema / Q000473:pathology; D016039:Corneal Transplantation / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D053685:Laser Therapy / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000379:methods*; D046529:Microscopy, Electron, Transmission; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic; D055095:Optics and Photonics; D012542:Scattering, Radiation