Photochemical tissue bonding

Abstract This chapter discusses the various modalities of photomedicine, an interdisciplinary branch of medicine that involves the study and application of light with respect to health and disease. The following main concepts are covered Photodynamic Therapy (PDT) for the treatment of cancer, PDT for bacterial infections, vascular PDT, photochemical internalisation, photochemical tissue bonding and the use of lasers in medicine. 

Perhaps the most widely applied technique in photomedicine, and the one responsible for most research effort, both fundamental and applied, is PDT. We will now discuss the principles, mechanism and application of PDT, as well as the techniques of photochemical tissue bonding, photochemical internalisation and PUVA therapy, which share photochemical principles with PDT. The reader can refer to the following recent reviews [6, 7] and monographs [8, 9] for more detailed information on the PDT mechanism and its applications. 

Kamegaya Y, Farinelli WA, Echague AVV et al (2005) Evaluation of photochemical tissue bonding fta closure of skin incisions and excisions. Lasers Surg Med 37 264-270... 

Lauto, A., Mawad, D., Barton, M., Gupta, A., Piller, S.C., Hook, J. Photochemical tissue bonding with chitosem adhesive films. Biomed. Eng. 9,47 (2010)... 

Timberlake, G.T., Yousef, A.L., Chiles, S.R., Moses, R.A., and Givens, R.S. (2005) Bonding corneal tissue Applications of photoactivated diazopyruvoyl cross-linking agent. Photochem. Photobiol. 81(5), 1180-1185. 

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