Hot-tip laser angioplasty for peripheral vascular disease: clinical experience with 18 patients

Between May 1988 and March 1989, the authors treated 18 patients who suffered from disabling claudication or rest pain. They used the laser hot-tip angioplasty technique, in which a metal tip on the laser transforms laser energy into heat. Nineteen lower extremities were so treated. Six patients had suffered iliac occlusion, 11 had disease in the superficial femoral artery and 1 in the popliteal artery. Laser angioplasty was successful in 7 of 13 lower limbs with infrailiac lesions and in 4 of the 6 limbs with iliac artery occlusion; the other 2 underwent bypass grafting (aortoiliac in 1 and aortobifemoral in the other). No loss or limb or death occurred, but immediate complications of perforation or dissection were frequent.