Portable laser pens that can seal wounds – Imagine you’re hiking fifty miles from the nearest human, and you slip, busting your knee wide open, gushing blood. Today, you might stand a chance of some serious blood loss — but in less than a decade you might be carrying a portable laser pen capable of sealing you back up Wolverine-style.
The promise of medical lasers goes beyond clean incisions and eye surgery: Many believe that lasers should be used not just to create wounds but to mend them too. Abraham Katzir, a physicist at Tel Aviv University, has a system that may just do the trick and is proving successful in its first human trials.
In principle, “laser-bonded” healing offers certain advantages over classic needle-and-thread sutures, including faster healing, decreased risk of infection, and less scarring. Researchers have been working toward flesh-welding lasers for more than a decade, and a number of human trials have shown promise. But what was lacking, until now, was consistency. Flesh, blood vessels, and nerves are delicate tissues that can easily be – for lack of a better word – overcooked.
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