Argon laser surgery of pediatric neural neoplasms.

The argon microsurgical laser offers a less traumatic and often more hemostatic technique for the ablation of neural and tumor tissues. Our experience in 15 microsurgical procedures is discussed. The argon laser was essential in the removal of small, moderately vascular, strategically placed intracranial and spinal lesions. In each of these cases, the laser either permitted a complete resection or augmented the amount of tumor resected over that which could be removed by standard microsurgical technique. The laser was not beneficial in operations on large lesions or those with markedly increased blood flow. There were no early or late complications related to the use of the argon laser. Further advances in laser technology will afford significant improvements over the presently available techniques of laser microneurosurgery.