Parametric Investigation of Multi-Pulsed Cryogen Spray Cooling for Skin Protection During Hyperthermal Laser Lipolysis Through in Vitro Experiment and Numerical Simulation

Abstract

Laser lipolysis is now a commonly accepted modality to remove fat. Transcutaneous hyperthermal laser lipolysis has attracted researchers’ interest because of its advantages of non-invasive nature and high efficiency. Owing to the competitional absorption of laser energy between skin and adipose tissue, it is necessary to develop efficient skin cooling technology to protect epidermis and dermis from thermal damage. In vitro laser experiment was carried out using streaky pork which has similar optical and thermal properties with human adipose tissue. Temperature changes of pigskin epidermis under 1210nm laser irradiation with different power (6W~12W) and irradiation duration (3s~13s) were obtained by infrared thermal imager. The experimental results showed that the epidermis temperature will exceed the safety threshold of 47°C when laser power is equal to 6W and irradiation duration longer than 5s, or laser power is equal or larger than 9W and irradiation duration equal or longer than 3s. To protect skin from thermal injury, multi-pulsed cryogen spraying cooling (MP-CSC) by using R134a was introduced. Numerical simulation was conducted to match cooling and laser parameters by simplifying skin tissue to a multi-layered model. It is suggested that hyperthermal laser lipolysis with power of 6W/9W and irradiation duration of 7s can be realized, accompanied by MP-CSC with pulse duration of 10ms, pulse delay of 2000ms and pulse number of 5.

Keywords: Hyperthermal laser lipolysis, Multi-pulsed cryogen spraying cooling, In vitro experiment, Numerical simulation