Use of medical lasers for airway disease

Abstract

Since the first description nearly half a century ago, medical lasers have become a vital component of the therapeutic armamentarium of interventional pulmonologists. Over this time, medical lasers have been utilized to relieve nearly every form of airway luminal obstruction with beneficial effect on patient symptoms. Through the review of more than 10,000 published airway laser applications, our collective understanding of the power of this technique has been refined. With the growing access to this powerful tool exists an obligation of the operator to fully realize the mechanism of how lasers work, appropriate indications, complications, techniques, safeguards, and outcomes of employing medical lasers for therapeutic effects in the airway. The following chapter provides a discussion of these points designed to serve as a reference for the interventionalist interested in the use of medical lasers.