Laser Angioplasty, Principles of Lasers, Procedure, Benefits of Laser Angioplasty, Technique and Treatment

Abstract

Laser stands for light amplified stimulated emission of radiation. It involves generating high-energy or high-intensity beams of light that can be used for various purposes. They find application in a wide-range of industry processes. In medicine, laser beams can be used to ablate or destroy abnormal tissue in any part of the body. There are various ablation techniques used in various treatments today such as thermal (uses heat), RF (radio-frequency waves ), electric (shocks given at site) and powerful drugs injected into the tissue. Laser is also one such ablation technique. It’s widely preferred as it causes less of thermal damage from heat-based ablation techniques and less of trauma to surrounding tissue from the other techniques mentioned above. In fact, depending on the laser technology used, one can have ‘cold lasers’ which do not create any heat. There are various laser technologies and techniques used for angioplasty, the most common being Excimer Laser. Excimer lasers use high-pressure, pulsed-gas laser techniques. These create intense ultraviolet (UV) light that has a high peak-power at several useful wavelengths, which makes it highly efficient. The source of the laser emission (lasing technique) is a fast electrical discharge and the lasing medium is a high-pressure mixture of a rare gas like Argon and a halogen gas. The procedure is called Excimer Coronary Laser Atherectomy (ECLA).