Coherent Inc. to Open World Class Training Facility for Prostate Surgery.

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BW HealthWire)--Aug. 16, 1999--

Coherent, Inc. (Santa Clara, CA) (NASDAQ:COHR) today announced the opening of a new holmium laser prostatectomy training center in Indianapolis, Indiana. The Prostate Center is a Clarian Health Partners diagnostic and treatment facility and in cooperation with Coherent Medical Group will provide surgeons with a world class, hands-on training experience with the VersaPulse(R) Select(TM) Holmium laser and new VersaCut(TM) Tissue Morcellator. Coherent is the only company to receive FDA clearance for marketing a holmium laser for Holmium Laser Resection of the Prostate (HoLRP) for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH).

Jim Taylor, Coherent Medical Group President, said "This is an important milestone for patients, surgeons, Coherent, and Clarian Health Partners. Enabling urologists to interact with experts and to observe, first hand, live surgery using new laser technology, will allow physicians to offer their patients one of the best minimally invasive options in the treatment of BPH."

BPH is an enlargement of the prostate gland that occurs with aging, creating an obstruction and making urination difficult. BPH affects over 18 million men in the US, Europe, and Asia Pacific. More than half of men over sixty suffer symptoms of BPH and as life expectancy increases, the incidence of BPH is expected to increase as well.

The traditional surgical procedure for BPH treatment is transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP), which uses an electrical loop to carve out the obstructing tissue. HoLRP uses a laser to excise the tissue and provides results equivalent to TURP but with substantial benefits. It is a virtually bloodless procedure, reducing postoperative catheter and convalescence time and risk of transfusion. Patients report greater satisfaction with the HoLRP procedure.

The VersaPulse Holmium laser is also cleared for other urologic procedures including treatment of stones (lithotripsy), tumors, and strictures. It can be used by other surgical specialties for procedures involving vaporization, ablation, incision, excision and coagulation of soft tissue.

"We are very pleased to pioneer with Coherent a training center focused on this important new technique that offers significant advantages over TURP,"said Dr. James Lingeman, one of the founders and Associate Director of The Prostate Center and Director of Research, Methodist Hospital Institute for Kidney Stone Disease. "HoLRP is rapidly becoming the surgical treatment of choice for BPH, one of the most common conditions that urologists treat. I welcome the opportunity to train surgeons on this new technology to accelerate their learning curve and help improve prospects of successful outcomes in their practice."he added. Prior to the new training center, surgeons traveled to New Zealand to receive HoLRP training.

Coherent Medical is a world leader in the development of laser products and services for ophthalmic, aesthetic, and surgical applications. Clarian Health Partners combines the clinical, research and academic expertise of physicians associated with Methodist and Indiana University Hospitals, and focuses exclusively on disorders of the prostate.

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The statements in this press release that relate to future plans, events or performance are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including risks associated with uncertainties related to currency adjustments, contract cancellations, manufacturing risks, competitive factors, uncertainties pertaining to customer orders, demand for products and services, development of markets for the Company's products and services and other risks identified in the Company's SEC filings. Actual results, events and performance may differ materially. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. The Company undertakes no obligation to release publicly the result of any revisions to these forward-looking statements that may be made to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

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Founded in 1966, Coherent, Inc. is a Standard & Poor's SmallCap 600 company and a world leader in the design and manufacture of lasers and systems for medical, scientific and commercial applications. Please direct any questions to Peter Schuman, Director of Investor Relations at [phone]. For more information about Coherent, visit our web site at http://www.cohr.com. To receive a full text copy of this press release by fax, please call [phone].