1997 Volume 18 Issue 4 Pages 31-39
With an increase of the number of patients with ischemic heart disease several kinds of therapies such as PTCA, coronary stenting and coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG) have been widely performed even in Japan.
However, there are a few patients for whom CABG can not be carried out at all, because small branches and diffuse stenotic lesions of the coronary arteries.
For those patients we have planned to supply arterial blood from the left ventricular cavity into the ischemic myocardium through laser channels created by CO2, laser (TMLR).
Based on our excellent experimental studies TMLR was applied in a 55 year old male patient with severe anginal attack. This patient was a first successfull clinical case treated by TMLR alone in the world.
