Near infrared femtosecond laser ablation of urinary calculi in water

Pulsed light emitted from a near infrared (λ=800nm) femtosecond laser is capable of plasma induced photodisruption of various materials. We used femtosecond laser pulses to ablate human urinary calculi. Femtosecond pulsed laser interaction with urinary calculi was investigated with various stone compositions, different incident fluences and number of applied pulses. Spectral-domain optical coherence tomography was used to image cross sections of ablation craters on the surface of urinary calculi. Our results indicate that femtosecond laser pulses can ablate various calculi compositions. Crater diameter and depth varies from tens of microns to several hundred microns when up to 1000 pulses were applied. Future studies are required to determine if pulsed near infrared femtosecond laser pulses can be applied clinically for lithotripsy of urinary calculi.

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