Lasers in biomedical engineering
Lasers in biomedical engineering
Today, every major hospital uses laser technology to perform certain procedures. As the devices become less expensive and specialists in their use more numerous, lasers are gradually moving into smaller medical centres, taking on newer tasks.
The term LASER stands for “Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation”. Lasers were theoretically predicted by Albert Einstein in 1917. However, they became a reality only in the 1960s. Their potential in the fields of medicine and biomedical engineering was realized soon afterwards.
The use of light for therapeutic and diagnostic procedures in medicine has evolved from the use of sunlight for heat therapy and as a simple tool for the inspection of eyes, skin, and wounds to the current use of lasers and endoscopy in various medical procedures. Indeed, the introduction of photonic technology into medicine over the last decade has revolutionized many clinical procedures, and because of its low cost, relative to many other technologies, photonic technology has the potential to greatly impact health care.
For example, coherent fiber optic bundles have been applied in laparoscopy cholecystectomy [minimally invasive removal of the gallbladder] to transform a once painful and expensive surgery into virtually an outpatient procedure. In the process, biomedical engineers have been instrumental in defining and demonstrating the engineering fundamentals of the interaction of light and heat with biological media, resulting in advances in dermatology, ophthalmology, cardiology, and urology.
Books on Lasers in biomedical engineering and medicine:
- Applied Laser Medicine By Hans-Peter Berlien, Gerhard J. Müller
- The History of the Laser By Mario Bertolotti
- The Laser Guidebook By Jeff Hecht
