Effect of Cooling on Thermal Damage in Tissue Subjected to Laser Irradiation

Abstract

This work focuses on the finite element method (FEM) that has been used to study the effect of cooling on damage initialization in skin subjected to CO2 laser. The bio-heat equation was used to simulate the temperature distribution in a skin. The result of this work was compared with the analytical solution of the same problem with good nearby results. From the result of this work, it was observed that increasing the convection heat transfer coefficient of the skin could increase the possible time required to cause damage during subjected the tissue to the laser. Also, it was found that the decrease in the environmental temp. can cause the same effect on the initialization of damage. This observation is very useful in treating skin through various laser medical procedures to avoid thermal damage.