INTRODUCTION

The use of laser for fertility-conserving and fertility-enhancing surgery has gone through extensive debate during the past two decades. Most of the arguments against was the lack of concrete evidence for its superiority in the form of multicenter randomized trials that would justify the cost of this highly efficient precise surgical instrument (1). However, the efficacy and the ease of use have made the laser one of fertility surgeon's favorite. As with all surgical procedures, the most suitable is the one the surgeon is most comfortable with. Which tool a surgeon should use for the operation remains the subject of randomized trials to be conducted. In this chapter, we are going to give a brief description of the physical principles and the applications of the most commonly used lasers in subfertility surgery and provide evidence when it is available.

PHYSICS

Laser stands for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation. The principle of the production of a laser beam is based on Einstein's theory of stimulated emission; an atom can be stimulated by an energy form – heat, electrical discharge, or photon bombardment – and stays stimulated for a calculated period of time. It then returns to its unstimulated state by emitting a photon, which is practically a light wave packet, one wave of light characteristic of the quality of the atom that was stimulated.