Laparoscopic surgery with a new tuned high-energy pulsed CO 2 laser.

Although CO 2 lasers have gained popularity in operative laparoscopy, it has been suggested that they do not deliver sufficiently high power density at the distal end of a laparoscope. Heating of the insufflation gas inside the laparoscope by absorption of some of the laser power causes the gas density to change and creates distortion and defocusing, resulting in lower power density at the tissue as the laser power is increased. A new laser uses the carbon-13 isotope in the laser gas mix instead of the carbon-12 isotope, which is used in both conventional lasers and CO 2 insufflation gas.