Therapeutic implications of nonablative laser application neurosurgery: future possibilities

William Zev Rymer; Shien-Fong Lin; Ursula Wesselmann M.D.

doi:10.1117/12.17476

1 June 1990 Therapeutic implications of nonablative laser application neurosurgery: future possibilities

William Zev Rymer, Shien-Fong Lin, Ursula Wesselmann M.D.

Proceedings Volume 1200, Laser Surgery: Advanced Characterization, Therapeutics, and Systems II; (1990) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.17476
Event: OE/LASE '90, 1990, Los Angeles, CA, United States

Abstract

The application of pulsed or CW infrared lasers to peripheral nerves of mammalian subjects at subablative intensities has shown that action potential propagation is impaired preferentially in slowly conducting axons, and that these laser effects also impair axoplasmic transport over a much longer time period. Parallel studies of afferent processing in the dorsal gray matter of a mammalian spinal cord indicate that synaptic transmission is modified at even lower energy levels. Given that small diameter nerve fibers are concerned primarily with pain transmission, and given further that the superficial regions of dorsal gray matter in the spinal cord are concerned almost exclusively with pain processing, application of infrared lasers to these areas may prove to have short or even long term anesthetic actions.

Citation Download Citation

William Zev Rymer, Shien-Fong Lin, and Ursula Wesselmann M.D. "Therapeutic implications of nonablative laser application neurosurgery: future possibilities", Proc. SPIE 1200, Laser Surgery: Advanced Characterization, Therapeutics, and Systems II, (1 June 1990); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.17476

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