Abstract

The removal of methyl methacrylate (MM) during the revision of loosened hip prostheses is technically difficult because of the hardness of the material and its relative anatomic inaccessibility. Our group is developing techniques to accomplish this with the Nd:YAG laser. In vitro experiments demonstrated the feasibility of this approach. However, the fumes generated by the impact of the Nd:YAG laser on MM may pose a potential health problem. We performed a spectroscopic analysis of these gaseous products.

© 1986 Optical Society of America