Effectiveness of excimer laser in peripheral and coronary artery disease: A systematic review

Abstract

Atherosclerosis as a chronic, generalized and progressive disease affects the entire arterial tree. It manifests as ischemic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease (CD) or peripheral arterial disease (PAD). The most common treatment of choice is endovascular (interventional) and coronary or peripheral surgery. However, photonic medicine has been making inroads into arterial lesions, making use of excimer laser in CAD and PAD. In this sense, with the aim of analyzing the effectiveness of Excimer Laser therapy, a systematic review was carried out by means of a search from January 2014 to December 2023, of articles related to Excimer laser therapies as sole treatment or combined with other therapeutic alternatives such as balloon angioplasty or angioplasty + Stent placement. The search was carried out in the databases Pubmed, Medline, Science Citation Index, Embase, Scopus, Directory of Open Access Journals in English and Spanish with access to full text. It was reported that with fluences between 30 and 80 mJ/mm2 50%, studies reported a decrease in adverse effects given by dissection, thrombosis, perforation, decreased flow, occlusion and restenosis for both peripheral arterial disease and coronary artery disease, Therefore, it is concluded that in view of the decrease in adverse effects, the Excimer laser has a high effectiveness in the management of arterial disease in the short and medium term, used in combination with Percutaneous Interventionism (Coronary and Peripheral).