Abstract

Excimer laser ablation of cardiovascular tissue is emerging as an important area of investigation both for excimer laser angioplasty as well as for open heart surgical procedures such as excimer laser endarterectomy.¹ Data are presented on many of the practical aspects of cardiovascular tissue ablation, such as the dependence of the cut rate of plaque on the degree of calcification, the effect of saline on the tissue cut rate, as well as the damage and transmission properties of the fiberoptic delivery system. A 40-ns duration uniform beam XeCl laser from Lumonics together with 1-mm core diam commercially available fused silica fibers was used in the study.

© 1988 Optical Society of America