ABSTRACT
Carbon dioxide (CO2) laser The CO2 laser emits at 10,600 nm, a wavelength that is strongly absorbed by tissue water (absorption coefficient of 800/cm2). With a pulse duration of <1 ms, CO2 laser light penetrates only 30 μm into tissue, and leaves a thin layer of residual thermal damage of 100-150 μm of tissue.1 By using these parameters, the CO2 lasers can precisely control the depth of ablation and thermal damage by combining high peak powers with short pulses. Two basic CO2 laser systems have been used in cutaneous resurfacing: the high-powered pulsed CO2 laser, which delivers its energy in the form of individual pulses of 600 μs-1 ms duration, and the scanned CO2 lasers, which use a
rapidly scanning focused beam. Despite their technical differences, both laser systems achieve equivalent clinical results.
