Early experience with excimer laser angioplasty above and below the knee

Although considerable progress has been made in angioplasty of lower leg arteries, percutaneous treatment of atherosclerotic disease in crural vessels is not considered a routine procedure. When the disease is located only in a short crural segment, percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) may be successful, but longer segments with crural disease respond less well to PTA. The authors investigated the possibilities of using a 2.2 mm excimer laser catheter, operating at a wavelength of 308 nm, as a stand-alone technique, for angioplasty. Their aim was to establish whether by vaporizing plaque material the excimer laser could be used to create an adequate lumen diameter. They treated 10 patients, 5 for pathology above the knee and 5 below the knee. In this latter group 11 vascular segments underwent laser angioplasty.In the study they showed that by vaporizing plaque in long segments of diseased crural arteries it is feasible to obtain good lumen diameter without additional balloon angioplasty. The excimer laser does not, however, seem to have a glorious future as a recanalization tool for the femoropopliteal artery, though it may be an alternative for the treatment of long segments of diseased infrapopliteal artery.