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The promise of medical lasers goes beyond clean incisions and eye surgery: Many believe that lasers should be used not just to create wounds but to mend them too. Abraham Katzir, a physicist at Tel Aviv University, has a system that may just do the trick and is proving successful in its first human trials.

Healing beam: A patient who underwent gall bladder surgery had two incisions healed with the classic suturing technique and two with laser soldering. After 30 days, the laser-bonded scars (bottom) appeared smaller than those done with a needle and thread (top).
Credit: Abraham Katzir

Researchers have been working toward flesh-welding lasers for more than a decade, and a number of human trials have shown promise. But what was lacking, until now, was consistency. Flesh, blood vessels, and nerves are delicate tissues that can easily be -- for lack of a better word -- overcooked.