Ten Years Of Laser Neurosurgery - A Review

When we were first confronted with the laser, in 1975, it was not considered useful for neurosurgery 123 . We were nonetheless fascinated by the potential of a non-touch instrument and attempted to demonstrate its applicability. After theoretical considerations and experimenting on animals, we performed the first laser operation on a patient on July 28, 1976. Since then we have performed nearly 1000 procedures with the CO2 and Nd:YAG lasers 4,5 6,7 . Our early hopes for the laser have been realized and new indications have been added.