Light propagation in tissues: effect of finite size of tissue sample

Laser beam propagation inside tissues with different lateral dimensions has been considered. Scattering and anisotropic properties of tissue critically determine spatial fluence distribution and predict sizes of tissue specimens when deviations of this distribution can be neglected. Along the axis of incident beam the fluence rate weakly depends on sample size whereas its relative increase (more than 20%) towards the lateral boundaries. The finite sizes were considered to be substantial only for samples with sizes comparable with the diameter of the laser beam. Interstitial irradiance patterns simulated by Monte Carlo method were compared with direct measurements in human brain specimens.