Lasers in anesthesia

Laser anesthesia is a rising star in our field of anesthesiology and we as anesthesiologists should have an in-depth knowledge about laser and the pitfalls that may await us. The drive for me to write this article is to throw light in the area of laser, dangers of the medical laser, and precautions to be taken to ensure their proper use. We can prevent the potential hazards by ensuing proper preoperative evaluation, formulating protocols, early recognition of the catastrophic events, and swift actions. Here I have discussed a case of glottic carcinoma stage IA planned for laser excision of the growth. We have taken all the preoperative stringent measures necessary for the laser surgery the previous day. Emergency airway gadgets were kept ready in case of difficult intubation. The patient was intubated with the Mallinckrodt endotracheal (ET) tube and surgery was done under general anesthesia with controlled ventilation using Vecuronium injection + N2O + medical air. The intraoperative period was uneventful. The patient was extubated after adequate reversal and the postoperative recovery was uneventful.