Iraqi Journal of Laser

Urinary stones are one of the most common painful disorders of the urinary system. Four new technologies have transformed the treatment of urinary stones: Electrohydraulic lithotripsy, ultrasonic lithotripsy, extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy, and laser lithotripsy.The purpose of this study is to determine whether pulsed holmium laser energy is an effective method for fragmenting urinary tract stones in vitro, and to determine whether stone composition affects the efficacy of holmium laser lithotripsy. Human urinary stones of known composition with different sizes, shapes and colors were used for this study. The weight and the size of each stone were measured. The surgical laser system which used in our study is Ho:YAG laser(2100nm) with four adjustable parameters (Pulsed mode, Rep rate, Power, Exposure time ). After each laser irradiation, the laser parameters (different energy setting, Rep rate) and the time of each stone fragmentation were recorded and also the stones fragments were weighed and sorted using a metal ruler. All stones studied were successfully fragmented with Ho:YAG laser. Although there were differences in stone fragmentation time and ablation based on composition and sizes of the stones, in addition to factors related to laser system itself like mode of operation (single or double pulse mode) and pulse energy and pulse repetition rate and the power. The results of holmium laser lithotripsy for urinary stones have been uniformly excellent. The holmium: YAG laser has demonstrated its efficacy as a method of choice for fragmentation of urinary tract stones. Advantages include ability to fragment stones of all composition.

To show the impact of 790-805 nm diode laser irradiations on wound healing as a supplementary treatment in women underwent episiotomies, and to assess the laser parameters that were used .Material and methods: Eighteen female patients were included in this study; all of them underwent mediolateral episiotomy. Ten patients received laser therapy- diode laser (K Laser) (790-805) nm in CW mode of operation (and eight patients were the control group. Spot size of 8mm, time for exposure for each spot was 30 seconds. The power used was 0.6 W .The power density for each spot of treatment was 1.19 W/cm2 per session (non contact mode of application of laser therapy).The group studied received 2 sessions of laser radiation, day 4, and day 8 after labour and the women of both groups were followed on day 4,8,14 and 28 post delivery in terms of pain, tenderness, redness, oedema, and discharge. After the 1stexposurethe patients had been assessed on day 8 of delivery; and their assessment showed that pain was present in 20% of the patients, tenderness in 30%, redness and oedema in 20% and 10% with discharge; which was less than the control group that had pain in 62.5% tenderness in 50%, redness and oedema in 50%, and discharge in 25%. After the 2nd exposure (patients were assessed on day 14 post-delivery) pain, tenderness and redness present only in 10%, while in the control group: pain, tenderness, oedema and discharge in 25%, and redness in 37%. Biostimulation is a method that can be used to enhance wound healing if used with appropriate parameters. Diode laser (790-805) nm can be used for enhancing episiotomy healing as a supplementary therapy when used in the CW mode with 0.6 w power and 1.19 w/cm2 power density for 30 seconds for each spot.

This work describes an experimental setup to evaluate the photodynamictoxicity of 650 nm diode laser and 532 nm Frequency-doubled Q-Switched Nd:YAG laser on the growth of Candida albicans as well as the potential fungicidal effect when combining the laser irradiation with specific photosensitizers namely methylene blue, toluidine blue, acridine orange and safranin O. In this study the findings showed that the number of colony-forming units per millilitre (CFU/ml) of C. albicans decreased with increasing exposure time. In particular in the case of the frequency doubled Nd:YAG laser combined with safranin O, the best lethal effect occurred at 11 minutes exposure time with 2.26 J/cm² energy density (89.18% reduction) in comparison with the group treated with neither the laser nor with the photosensitizer. Irradiation with the frequency doubled Nd:YAG laser in the presence of acridine orange had less effect in reducing the number of CFU/ml for C. albicans. The highest reduction (85.88%) was achieved with 2.26 J/cm2 energy density at 9 min exposure time. On the other hand, the best performance in the case of diode laser was when combining with methylene blue at 28 minutes exposure and 0.58 w/cm2 power density (45.38%). In the case of diode laser with toluidine blue, the highest reduction of CFU/ml (67.93%) occurred at 35 min at the same power density.

Spider veins are a common aesthetic problem mainly in females , the conventional method of treatment is by microsclerotherapy (injections) but laser therapy has become increasingly efficacious and a convenient method for treatment. The present study was performed to investigate the effectiveness and safety of pulsed diode laser (810nm) by doing thermal photocoagulation. Ten patients with lower limbs spider veins were included in this prospective study. They were treated with a repetitive pulsed diode laser in non contact technique using the following laser parameters (wave length 810nm,power 1 W ,pulse duration 0.1 s., pulse interval 0.5 s, spot diameter 4mm ,power density 7.9 W/cm2). Laser therapy was performed on day zero and day fourteen. Clinical assessments were carried out before laser therapy and immediately after the first laser therapy, after 2 weeks, 4 weeks, and 6 weeks. The procedure was performed without using any type of anesthesia. Results showed that there was a remarkable improvement for all patients after the first treatment and after the second treatment. Only six patients showed a complete disappearance of the spider veins with absent peroperative and postoperative pain and complications, within short operative time in comparison with the microsclerotherapy. So the repetitive pulsed diode laser therapy (810nm) is an effective and safe treatment option for lower limbs spider veins. It's recommended that larger numbers of cases to be done to allow for a proper statistical analysis and a longer follow up period to assess the recurrence rate.

Twenty five samples out of sixty wound swabs taken from burn patients were identified as P. aeruginosabacteria by conventional methods. Antibiotics susceptibility tests were performed against thirteen antibiotics. P. aeruginosa samples were treated with 0.5 mg/ml of Safranin O solution then irradiated with 532nm Q-switched Nd:YAG laser at four energy densities (0.324, 0.704, 1.380, and 1.831 J/cm2) for different times of 5, 8 and 11 minutes with 5Hz repetition rate. The viability, susceptibility to antibiotic and production of pyocyanin were determined before and after irradiation. The results showed that the number of CFU/ml of P. aeruginosa decreased with increasing the dose of irradiation. Complete killing of cells was observed at 1.831 J/cm2 energy density for different times )5, 8 and 11 minutes(. The susceptibility of P. aeruginosato antibiotics increased with increasing the dose of irradiation, especially to Oxacillin and Azithromycin antibiotics, except in the case of Ceftazidime, where no variation in the susceptibility at any dose was observed. No change was observed in the production of pyocyanin.