Biodegradable poly (L-lactide) (L-PLA) solution in methylene chloride was precipitated into microparticles by using supercritical carbon dioxide modified with polar cosolvents. The effects of the amount of polar cosolvents, solution concentration, temperature, and solution flow rate on the formation of microparticles were investigated. The mean particle size was found to increase with the increase of solution concentration and flow rate. It was also observed that the particle size not only increases but the size distribution also becomes less uniform as the temperature increases. The percent recovery of microparticles was found to be 30∼40% at all experimental conditions. The supercritical carbon dioxide modified with methanol and ethanol was employed to enhance the recovery, resulting in significant improvement up to about 80 and 70%, for methanol and ethanol, respectively. Furthermore, the mean diameter of L-PLA microparticles was found to be less than 1 $mu extrm{m}$ for both cosolvents.