Endoscopic gastrointestinal laser therapy.

The development of flexible fibers for the delivery of laser energy led to the first endoscopic laser applications in humans in the early 1970s. Since that time, much has been learned about applications throughout the gastrointestinal tract. The risks appear to be minimal. The coagulative effect of laser energy is used to treat gastrointestinal hemorrhage and small, benign mucosal lesions. The ablative effect of the Nd:YAG laser on tissue is used for palliative therapy for malignant gastrointestinal disorders and incisional therapy for anatomic lesions such as strictures or cysts. New laser modalities that potentially can be tuned throughout large segments of the electromagnetic spectrum, new fiber-optic delivery systems with specialized tips and new methods of sensitizing tissue to laser energy all indicate that the endoscopic laser should continue to have many new and innovative applications.