<title>Photoablation</title>

Abstract

There are three principal classes of laser tissue interactions. All three can be used to remove malignant tissue either by biological digestion or immediate removal i.e., photovaporization or photodecomposition. This paper discusses a semiempirical theory of the so-called photoablation process and the thermal side effects of the surrounding tissue. Describing the photoablation process requires differentiation to be made between very short laser pulse durations (