Surgery: Plasma cutting in ophthalmology

Plasmas are described as the fourth state of matter where an established plasma can contain electrons and ions at high temperatures. Plasmas, however, can exist in a wide range of states and conditions.

The conventional technologies used for the cutting of tissue during surgery have included the scalpel and surgical diathermy¹ where, in the latter, radio frequency energy at around 500kHz creates a plasma at the site of tissue cutting.

More recently, technology has utilised the generation of short pulses of laser radiation to generate gas plasmas in situ in tissues and liquids such as Q-switch capsulotomy² and even shorter pulses for surgery in the anterior chamber using femtosecond pulse duration lasers.³