The effects of lasers and electrosurgical devices on human meniscal tissue.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of various laser wavelengths on human meniscal tissue in vitro and to compare them with the effects of electrosurgical devices. The carbon dioxide (CO2) laser produced the best cutting and ablating effects among the infrared lasers, although the contact neodymium:yttrium-aluminum-garnet (Nd:YAG) and holmium:YAG (Ho:YAG)lasers were nearly as satisfactory, offering the additional advantage of fiberoptic capability and the ability to be used in saline. The free-beam Nd:YAG laser and coagulation mode electrosurgical device produced unacceptably severe thermal changes. The excimer laser at 308 nm produced the best tissue effect and caused no detectable adjacent thermal change in the tissue.