Temperature measurements during laser tissue welding process

Abstract

Laser welding of biological tissues require temperature control over the entire process, because the allowed temperature margin is 2 °C around the tissue-specific coagulation temperature. The paper presents the results of the research concerning laser tissue welding, using continuous wave laser diode. The infrared radiation associated with laser welding process was detected by two thermal imaging cameras. First one, operating in SWIR range, measured the scattered radiation of a laser diode. The second camera, operating in MWIR spectral band was used to measure the temperature of a tissue. The rates of tissue temperature changes, surface and in-depth temperature distributions were measured for different kinds of tissues and power outputs 20-75W of applied semiconductor laser.