[The transurethral use of laser therapy in urology]

The utilization of laser energy plays an ever increasing role in medicine, surgical practice in particular. This is most clearly expressed in the field of urology where endoscopic access to the entire urogenital system is possible against the background of a continuous improvement of the surgical armamentarium over the past few years. The various types of lasers available, qualities of the laser source, and the physical and biophysical principles of their action are comprehensively described. The creation of this particular type of energy (laser), transmissible along flexible quartz fibers and not absorbed by water, considerably increases the interest in laser treatment of diseases of the urinary bladder and urethra. Laser therapy has important clinical implications, and broadens the scope of endoscopic treatment of a variety of urological diseases involving the upper urinary ways.