Enhanced light-matter interaction in nanofluid laser lithotripsy

Urinary stone disease is a benign but painful health condition that affects 11% of Americans in the US. It is commonly treated with ureteroscopic laser lithotripsy, which delivers a near-infrared pulsed laser beam to break down the kidney stone. Conventionally, the advances of laser lithotripsy hinge on laser optical engineering, which enables parameter space in power, pulse profile, and repetition frequency. Meanwhile, the absorption coefficient of the fluid near and inside the stone has never been considered a tunable parameter, despite its crucial role in stone ablation and thermal injury. In this talk, I will introduce our multidisciplinary team’s recent work, which utilizes a near-infrared-absorbing nanofluid to enhance the performance and functionality of clinical laser lithotripsy. By increasing the light-matter interaction, our in vitro and in vivo tests show that nanofluid can increase the stone ablation by several folds in a self-replenishing manner without incurring thermal dose or injury, holding great potential to shift the paradigm in laser lithotripsy.