[Effect of pulse duration of the Er:YAG laser on photoablation in ocular tissue (cornea and sclera)].

After photoablation in corneal and scleral tissue with the Er:YAG laser, two zones of thermal damage can be detected: The first zone (about 3 microns thick) consists of thermally denatured debris. The second zone (about 30 microns thick) shows a slightly more intense staining (H&E) compared to the non-influenced tissue. Variation of laser pulse duration between 100 microseconds and 1300 microseconds does not influence the extension of these two thermal damage zones. Furthermore, ablation rate and ablation volume remain nearly constant within this range of pulse durations. These data were obtained by histology (H&E staining) and with a recently published silicon cast replica method. All experiments have been performed on corneas and sclera of pig eyes.