Considering the heterogeneous thermal properties of living tissues,a multi-layer heat transfer model for laser-tissue thermal interaction is presented in this paper.An analytical solution to the temperature transients within two tissue layers is obtained using the Laplace integral transform method.Heat transfer behaviors inside the tissues before evaporation are investigated.The critical time required to vaporize the surface tissue and the thermal damage depth are numerically predicted.It was shown that there is evident difference in temperature predictions between the uniform model and the heterogeneous one.This study is useful to laser surgery,such as ophthalmology,dermatology and neurosurgery which request high accuracy on temperature prediction and heat deposition.