Background and objective: Current resection modalities for oral squamous cell carcinomas (OSCC) vary from cold steel over CO2 laser to monopolar electro-surgery (MO). We compared thulium laser (TL) as a new modality with MO with regards to pathological assessment.
Study design/materials and methods: Forty-two patients who were treated for OSCC by either TL or MO were included. All resected specimens were assessed with special attention to margin interpretation and thermal damage.
Results: Depth of thermal damage ranged from 1.0 to 3.5 mm in the TL group compared to 1.0-4.0 mm in the MO group without interfering with the pathological assessment. The percentage of positive margin resections was three times higher in the MO group compared with the TL group.
Conclusions: This study shows resections done by TL do not impair pathological assessment when compared to MO resections.
Keywords: electrosurgery; laser therapy; oral neoplasm; pathology; thulium.
© 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.