Laser Blepharoplasty

Laser is used by ophthalmologists for past thirty years for the treatment of diseases related to retina. Laser has been used frequently for medicine and surgery in recent years. In laser blepharoplasty, laser is used for incision and removal of skin, muscle, fat, tumors and almost any imaginable tissue. The laser incision tends to bleed less in laser blepharoplasty and thus the surgery takes less time as compare to general blepharoplasty. With laser blepharoplasty, extra fat from eyelid removed without first clamping and it also prevent bleeding. Laser blepharoplasty may eliminate slight discomfort.

The first laser used in laser blepharoplasty was neo-dymium- YAG (ND-YAG) laser in 1980. In this laser instrument, laser is transmitted through fiber optic coil with a power that can be directly applied to the skin. Laser power cuts the tissue and coagulates blood vessels. Laser blepharoplasty reduces the surgery time, but the saved time lost in the pre-surgery set-up. There was no demonstrable advantage from the laser blepharoplasty. Also there was an obvious scar on the operated side due to thermal injury.

The laser blepharoplasty then renewed in 1990s with some good features. Laser blepharoplasty was then introduced with high-energy pulsed CO2 laser. This laser devise is know by its trade name Ultra Pulse. The CO2 laser device produces pulse beam with high frequency that made skin incision with a smaller zone of thermal injury. The pulsed beam frequency and energy can be independently vary to achieve the ideal blend of cutting and coagulation of tissues. The CO2 laser in laser blepharoplasty also produces a small diameter beam approx 0.2mm which is also useful in pre-orbital region. When used properly, laser blepharoplasty could be performed quickly and thermal incision region reduced. After the healing from laser blepharoplasty, the scars become indistinguishable in appearance in very short period compare to steel wound blepharoplasty. After the satisfactory results from laser blepharoplasty, it become more popular in many clinical settings. In 1998, Er: YAG laser used to produce soft tissue incision. Unfortunately this laser was not able to produce enough hemostasis for soft tissue incision surgery.