| pubmed-article:8185268 | pubmed:abstractText | Fifty-five patients with occlusion of the superficial femoral artery were studied. Of these, fifty-two had claudication and three had critical ischaemia. The mean length of the occlusion was 6.8 cm. In the first phase of the study, laser-assisted angioplasty (LAA) was used. In the second phase, a Terumo guide wire (TGW) was used first and if unsuccessful, a laser probe was used. An attempt was always made to push the laser probe through the occlusion without firing ('cold probe'). Otherwise, the Nd-YAG laser was activated ('hot probe'). The overall success rate for LAA alone was 79%. The TGW followed by LAA, if necessary, succeeded in 77%. The 'hot probe' resulted in four perforations; only one perforation was seen with the TGW. TGW is more straightforward to use and less likely to result in perforation making it a good first option with LAA as a backup. | lld:pubmed |
