Effect of pulse duration on microsecond‐domain laser lithotripsy

The pulsed dye laser (wavelength 504 nm, pulse duration 1 microsecond) is widely used for fragmenting urinary and biliary calculi. In this study, the performance of this laser was compared with pulsed dye lasers producing pulse durations of 8 and 20 microseconds. Fragmentation thresholds and fragmentation rates were measured using a variety of urinary and biliary calculi. Effective fragmentation of urinary and biliary calculi was obtained with 1-microsecond and 8-microseconds pulse durations, but satisfactory fragmentation could not be achieved at 20 microseconds.