Background and objective: The laser-induced stress relaxation provides new prospects to obtain stable long fragments of costal cartilage for autoimplantation avoiding the risk of spontaneous deformation and poor engraftment. However, the age-related alterations of cartilage may sufficiently influence its interaction with infrared (IR) laser radiation and disrupt the effectiveness and safety of the technique. The aim of the work is to study the influence of the structural quality of costal cartilage on its interaction with IR laser and efficiency of obtaining of curved implants for trachea surgery.
Study design/materials and methods: Healthy costal cartilage was taken from pigs and human. Ossified costal cartilage was taken from humans of age 65 ± 7. The cartilage slices with a mean thickness of 3 mm were mechanically curved and processed to stress relaxation by laser irradiation with the wavelength 1.56 µm. The structure and mineral content were studied by X-ray microtomography and element analysis. The optical measurements included the study of the propagation of IR radiation, speckle interferometry, and IR radiometry.
Results: The aged cartilage demonstrates a high level of heterogeneity in structure and properties and decreased water content. The presence of dense inclusions consisting of amorphous calcined volumes makes the tissue more fragile and less elastic. The IR radiation propagation intensity for aged cartilage is at least twice higher than that for healthy cartilage. The thermal-induced motion of scatterers in aged cartilage is slower. X-ray microtomography showed the cartilage-like and the bone-like structures within the ossified samples.
Conclusions: The main challenge for laser reshaping of aged cartilage is the presence of ossifications. However, the new stable curvature can be obtained with adjustment of laser power. To obtain the satisfying stable curvature of an implant the ossified volumes should be avoided The laser-induced stress-relaxation mechanism for aged cartilage can be particularly different from that of healthy tissue and the optimal laser regimes should be specified. Lasers Surg. Med. © 2020 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Keywords: X-ray microtomography; aged cartilage; cartilage composition; costal cartilage; implantation; laser reshaping; ossification; speckle interferometry.
© 2020 Wiley Periodicals LLC.