The current status of laser angioplasty : coronary and peripheral results : Lasers in medicine

During the past decade considerable efforts have been devoted to utilize lasers coupled to fiber-optic catheter delivery systems to open atherosclerotic arterial narrowings in peripheral and coronary arteries. Continuous wave lasers (argon and Nd:YAG) are able to create an opening, but because of thermal injury they have had a medically unacceptable high incidence of restenosis. Specially designed excimers and short pulsed near IR systems have been shown to cause minimal thermal injury