Safety with surgical lasers

With the development of any new biomedical or surgical technique using a potentially hazardous new technology, it is necessary to consider health hazards to both the patient and medical personnel. Lasers used in surgery and in some other biomedical applications can pose potential hazards to both the patient and to the laser operating personnel. Because the laser beam is normally in the open when emitted from a surgical laser, special precautions are necessary. Unlike many applications of relatively high-powered lasers in industry where the laser may been closed, the very nature of most lasr surgical procedures requires the use of administrative controls and the use of protective eyewear rather than engineering controls such as beam enclosures, baffles, etc. Be cause of the requirements for flexibility in the arrangement of the laser beam delivery system and the open beam, the potential for hazardous exposure to laser radiationis the highest for some surgical and biomedical personnel (1, 2, 3). The hazards posed by enclosed industrial lasers are, as a general rule, farless (2).