Seminars

Although lasers have been used for tissue ablation in surgery for a long time, their application for controllable tissue modification is relatively new and opens new avenues in medicine. In 1992 we identified laser-induced stress relaxation in the biological tissues. This led to the development of a family of novel laser applications for the non-ablative correction of nasal septum shape and eye refraction, such as making cartilage implants, restoring the joints and intervertebral discs, and normalizing the intraocular pressure in glaucomatous eyes. This talk will present some new state of the art results in cartilage and cornea reshaping under the thermo-mechanical effect of laser radiation. We will characterize the physical processes and mechanisms involved in the laser-induced modification of tissue nanostructure and stress relaxation. In particular, we will consider the theoretical model allowing laser settings optimization for laser-induced formation of the nanopore system in the tissues promoting cartilage regeneration and normalization of intraocular pressure. Clinical examples and prospects will be discussed.

Bio:

Emil Sobol, PhD, Doctor of Sciences, Head of the Biophotonics laboratory at the Institute on Laser and Information Technologies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Troitsk, Moscow, Russia; Professor of Medical Physics, Physics department, M.V. Lomonosov State University, Moscow, Russia.

Dr. Sobol has experience in basic physics and photonics, laser-matter interactions and laser applications in medicine and has worked in biomedical optics for more than twenty years. Over that time period, he has pioneered the first successful laboratory and clinical demonstrations of laser-assisted cartilage reshaping and regeneration, developed a new technology of laser correction of nasal septal deformities and laser reconstruction of spine disc cartilage, studied the primary biophysical process relevant to laser-assisted vision correction, in particular, established that non-ablative laser irradiation may be used to form micro-pores in sclera that increases water permeability and can be used for normalization of intraocular pressure in glaucomatous eyes.
He is the author of two books and 180 scientific papers. He received the Theodore Maiman Award from Laser Centers of America and the Russian National Award “Vocation” for outstanding contribution of non-medical scientists to medicine.