UC Irvine

Recent studies have shown spray cooling of the skin surface with millisecond cryogen spurts to be an effective method for protecting the epidermis from non-specific thermal injury during various laser mediated dermatological procedures. We have investigated the effects of ambient humidity level, spraying distance, and cryogen boiling point on the resulting radiometric surface temperature. Our findings indicate that: 1) decreasing the ambient humidity level results in less ice formation on the skin surface without altering the radiometric surface temperature during a cryogen spurt; 2) increasing the spraying distance to 85 mm lowers the radiometric surface temperature; and 3) boiling point of the cryogen does not directly affect the surface temperature in the geometries studied.