title: Porcine cortical bone ablation by ultrashort pulsed laser irradiation.
abstract: Ultrashort pulsed lasers in bone ablation show promise for many orthopedic applications. To minimize collateral tissue damage and control the ablation process, the ablation threshold fluence must be well characterized. Using an amplified femtosecond laser (170 fs, 800 nm, 1 kHz), the ablation threshold on unaltered porcine cortical bone was measured using the D(2) method at multiple incident pulse numbers ranging from 25 to 1000 pulses per spot. The lowered threshold at greater pulse numbers indicated an incubation effect. Using a power law model, the incubation coefficient of unaltered porcine cortical bone was found to be 0.89 ± 0.03. Through extrapolation, the single-pulse ablation threshold was found to be 3.29 ± 0.14 J/cm(2).
authors.affiliation: McMaster University, Department of Medical Physics and Applied Radiation Sciences, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Brent
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Emigh
authors.forename: Ran
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: An
authors.forename: Eugene M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Hsu
authors.forename: Travis H R
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Crawford
authors.forename: Harold K
authors.initials: HK
authors.lastname: Haugen
authors.forename: Gregory R
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Wohl
authors.forename: Joseph E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Hayward
authors.forename: Qiyin
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Fang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D053685:Laser Therapy / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D012540:Scapula / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery*; D013552:Swine