Nd-YAG Laser in Management of Endobronchial Lesions, a Five - Year Report

Authors

1 Department of Pulmonary Medicine

2 Department of Anesthesiology, NRITLD, Shaheed Beheshti University of Medical Sciences and Health Services, THERAN-IRAN.

Abstract

Background: Nd-YAG laser is a relatively safe and effective procedure in the management of various types of endobronchial lesions including tracheobronchial tumors. It has been used in treatment of benign tumors and as a palliative therapy in obstructive airway lesions due to non-operable lung cancers. Materials and Methods: In this study, patients who underwent laser therapy because of their endobronchial lesions that admitted during 1994-99 in our hospital were investigated. A total number of 210 patients including 14 with benign tumors, 77 with malignant tumors, 11 with metastatic lesions, 14 with undefined prognosis tumor, and 94 with other lesions who seek laser therapy were investigated. The most common signs and symptoms among these patients were cough, dyspnea, hemoptysis, and obstructive pneumonitis. Improvement in airway obstruction following the application of laser therapy was assessed based on clinical signs and symptoms, arterial blood gas indices and spirometric results. Results: After performing laser therapy, cough in 95.1% of patients, dyspnea in 97.7%, hemoptysis in 89.4% and obstructive pneumonitis in all of these patients showed a significant improvement. Obstruction was relieved in more than 95% of the patients; however, this rate reached to 100% in lesions of trachea and main airways. 98% of 263 obstruction sites were relieved immediately after procedure, and 34.6 % of these cases were completely treated by laser therapy. Complications of laser therapy were observed only in 2 of these patients, that resulted in death in one case. Conclusion: The results of our study were consistent with the previous studies regarding the efficacy and safety of Nd-YAG laser therapy in endobronchial lesions. (Tanaffos 2004; 3(9): 19-25)

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