"Tissue welding" with the argon laser in middle ear surgery.

Over the past 10 years the argon laser has been recognized as a valuable adjunct to middle ear surgery. It has been used to vaporize and cut tissue and to coagulate microbleeding. It has been used by many other surgical specialties to "weld" adjacent tissues together. This welding process appears to have a limited but helpful role in middle ear surgery. A pilot study of 30 surgical cases in which argon laser "tissue welding" has been used are reported. The benefits, limitations, and possible future implications are discussed.