laser surgery
Meaning of laser surgery: Laser surgery uses a focused, high energy beam of light to cut, seal, or remove tissue with precision across many surgical fields.
Definition of laser surgery
Laser surgery is a surgical technique that uses a laser, a device that produces an intense, tightly focused beam of light, to cut through tissue, seal small blood vessels as it cuts, or destroy abnormal tissue such as a lesion or tumor. Because the beam can be precisely focused, laser surgery often allows very fine, controlled cuts compared with a traditional scalpel.
Laser surgery is used across many fields of medicine, including ophthalmology, where it reshapes the cornea or treats certain retinal conditions, dermatology, where it treats skin lesions and some vascular or pigmented conditions, gynecology, and the treatment of certain cancers and precancerous tissue.
Different types of lasers vary in the wavelength of light they produce, and this wavelength determines which types of tissue the laser affects most effectively, so the specific laser chosen depends on the procedure being performed.
Used in a sentence
Laser surgery was used to remove the precancerous lesion from the surface of the skin.
Good to know
Different laser types are matched to specific tissue targets based on wavelength, so a laser well suited to one procedure, such as corneal reshaping, is not necessarily suitable for another, such as skin resurfacing.