Evaluation of the Bending Loss of the Hollow Optical Fiber for Application of the Carbon Dioxide Laser to Endoscopic Therapy

Daisuke Kusakari, Hisanao Hazama, Rinna Kawaguchi, Katsunori Ishii, Kunio Awazu

1Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan 2Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan 3The Center for Advanced Medical Engineering and Informatics, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan.
Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan.

DOI: 10.4236/opj.2013.34A003                

Abstract

Since carbon dioxide laser is excellent for incision, hemostasis, coagulation, and vaporization of soft tissues, it has been widely applied in clinical treatments as the laser knife. In these days, flexible thin hollow optical fibers transmitting mid-infrared light have been developed, and the application of carbon dioxide laser to endoscopic therapy has become possible. However, it is expected that the irradiation effect is influenced by the change in the laser power at the tip of the hollow optical fiber due to the change in the transmittance by the bending loss. The purpose of this research is to quantitatively evaluate the change in the output power and therapeutic effect by bending the hollow optical fiber in a gastrointestinal endoscope. The change in the transmittance of the hollow optical fiber due to the insertion of the fiber into the endoscope and bending of the head of the endoscope was measured. Then, the relationship between the irradiated laser power and the incision depth for a porcine stomach was investigated. As the results, the most significant decrease in the transmittance of the hollow optical fiber was caused by the insertion of the fiber into the instrument channel of the endoscope, and bending of the head of the endoscope with the angle of 90° decreased the output laser power and incision depth by 10% and 25%, respectively. Therefore, it was confirmed that the bending loss of the hollow optical fiber due to the bending of the head of the endoscope had no significant influence on the endoscopic therapy using the carbon dioxide laser.

Keywords

Hollow Optical Fiber; Carbon Dioxide Laser; Bending Loss; Endoscopic Therapy

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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