Affiliations: [a] Department of Ophthalmology, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland | [b] Lindenhofspital Bern, Switzerland | [c] Meridian AG, Bern-Liebefeld, Switzerland | [d] Institute of Anatomy, University of Bern, Switzerland | [e] Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Medical Informatics, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and University of Zürich, Switzerland
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author. Department of Ophthalmology, University of Zürich, Frauenklinikstrasse 24, CH-8091 Zürich, Switzerland.
Abstract: One may consider the clad silica fibre cutting probe as a cheap alternative of the popular sapphire probe, sharing some of its properties. Made of silica, the scalpels have a fair heat tolerance and may be used without cooling by liquids or gas as is necessary with sapphire blades. The laser scalpel described here is driven (powered) with a 10 W cw Nd:YAG laser energy source (1064 nm) and possesses good cutting and haemostatic properties. It may also be used with lasers emitting other wavelengths. One may assume that a diode laser emitting in the near infrared (800–810 nm) may have very similar, although not analogous cutting properties when used with the described scalpel.
