A dual wavelength surgical laser system for performing laser surgery on living tissue with a minimum amount of collateral tissue damage is disclosed. The dual wavelength surgical laser system comprises: a pump laser for emitting pump laser pulses of light at a preselected pump wavelength; an optical parametric oscillator responsive to each pump pulse from the pump laser for producing a first wavelength pulse of light in a water absorption band of the tissue and a second wavelength pulse of light in a protein absorption band of the tissue; a first set of optics for only passing therethrough each first wavelength pulse from the optical parametric oscillator; an optical delay line for delaying each first wavelength pulse from the first set of optics by a predetermined period of time; a second set of optics for only passing therethrough each second wavelength pulse from the optical parametric oscillator; and a beam combiner for combining each second wavelength pulse with the following delayed first wavelength pulse to form a stream of consecutive second and delayed first pulse pairs for application to the tissue.
