Need info on laser angioplasty

[bren__0__0]

  My father is 75 yrs old. He has had 9 bypasses, numberous balloon angioplasties, 2 stents, and 6 weeks of EECP treatments.  He has responded great to all treatments, but the effects of each treatment have become shorter and shorter.  His latest EECP treatment gave him wonderful benefits, but it only lasted 6 months.  His anginas have returned and are severe.  He sounds incapacitated  by the description above, but he mows his lawn and is fairly active.  He has almost a total blockage in a bend in an artery beyond a stent.  His doctor could not get a balloon angioplasty through and the "roto" thing (can't remember the medical term for it) would not shave anything off because the blockage has calcified.  They are now talking about doing a laser angioplasty on him.  They indicated that his other bypasses look good and this is his main area of trouble.  I would appreciate any information on this procedure you could give me.  He will probably have in done in a couple of days (he currently has the max amount of dye in his system from the previous attempts yesterday).  It is hard to find out anything about this procedure.  Any info at all would be appreciated!  Thank you!

[CCF Cardio MD - MTR]

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Dear Bren, thank you for your question.  There are many different techniques used with balloon angioplasty to relieve blockages in the coronary arteries with catheters.  Commonly used techniques include stents, rotablation, directional atherectomy, and laser-eximer angioplasty.  The laser angioplasty device uses pulses of laser energy to destroy a blockage.  I'm not sure what kind of information you are looking for on this procedure because when used in experienced hands, laser angioplasty achieves results similar to stents, balloons, etc.  For your father, there should be no difference in his care after the procedure with a laser procedure than a balloon procedure.  I think the best strategy would be to trust the judgement of the cardiologists caring for him and ask them specific questions after they complete the procedure.  For now, there is a lot of speculation until the procedure is actually performed.  Hopefully, the blockage can be relieved and your father's angina can subsequently be reduced.
I hope you find this information useful.  Information provided in the heart forum is for general purposes only.  Only your physician can provide specific diagnoses and therapies. Please feel free to write back with additional questions.  Good luck!
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