Endoscopic laser treatment for tracheal obstruction

Objective. To evaluate the efficacy of endoscopic laser treat- ment (ELT) in patients with endolu- minal tracheal obstruction. Method. A neodymium: yttrium alu- miuium, garnet (Nd:YAG) laser was used on 60 patients with significant (>50%) tracheal stenosis. They were grouped as follows: primary tracheal malignancy (PTM n = 11), secondary tracheal malignancy (STM n = 27), benign tracheal tumours (BTT n = 4) and inflammatory tracheal stenosis (ITS n= 18). Assessment was made clinically, endoscopically and using ventilatory function tests (forced vi- tal capacity (FVC) and peak expira- tory flow rate (PEFR)), before and after treatment. Results. There was no treatment-re- lated mortality. Peak expiratory flow rate improved significantly overall and in the PTM, STM and ITS groups. There was no significant im- provement in FVC overall or in any of the individual groups. Subjec- tively, 98% of the patients felt ira-