Laser treatment in urology: our experience with neodymium:YAG and carbon dioxide lasers

Laser surgery is currently considered as an effective alternative in the treatment of several urological diseases. We report on our three-year experience treating recurrent superficial low grade bladder carcinoma in 80 patients using Neodymium: YAG (Nd:YAG) laser. A decrease in local tumour recurrence rate (11%) was observed, but the overall not treated area recurrence was 45%. No complications were noted when the procedure was carried out on outpatient basis. Furthermore, we have been treating successfully urogenital condylomata using Nd:YAG and carbon dioxide (CO2) lasers in 364 patients. In addition we describe the use of Nd:YAG laser in the percutaneous treatment of a patient with bilateral transitional cell carcinoma of the renal pelvis.