Laser treatment apparatus

Details Laser treatment apparatus Laser treatment apparatus

2002-02-22

2004-02-24

Gibson, Roy D. (Department: 3739)

Surgery

Instruments

Light application

C606S010000, C607S089000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06695835

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a laser treatment apparatus for performing treatment on a part to be treated (an affected part) of a skin by irradiating the part with a laser beam for treatment.
2. Description of Related Art
There has been known a laser treatment apparatus which irradiates a laser beam for treatment to a skin of a patient in order to perform depilation, removal of wrinkles, removal of birthmarks or other types of treatments. This type of treatment apparatus is usually provided with a hand-piece. At an aiming (alignment) work for laser irradiation, an operator moves the hand-piece to adjust an irradiation position (a spot position) of a laser beam to an intended position on a part to be treated, and performs the laser irradiation.
When the treatment part has a wide area, however, the operator has to move the irradiation position a number of times to completely perform laser irradiation to the entire treatment part. This would be a troublesome work for the operator.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances and has an object to overcome the above problems and to provide a laser treatment apparatus capable of efficiently and appropriately performing laser irradiation to a treatment part having a wide area.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and attained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.
To achieve the purpose of the invention, there is provided a laser treatment apparatus for performing treatment on a treatment part of a skin by irradiating the part with a laser beam for treatment, the apparatus including: laser output means which outputs the treatment beam; a hand-piece provided with at least a part of an irradiation optical system for irradiating the treatment beam of a predetermined spot size, the hand-piece being held in contact with the skin; detection means which detects a moved position of the hand-piece on the skin; and control means which controls an ON/OFF state of laser irradiation based on the moved position detected by the detection means and information on the spot size.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a laser treatment apparatus for performing treatment on a treatment part of a skin by irradiating the part with a laser beam or treatment, the apparatus including: a treatment laser beam output device; a hand-piece provided with a main part having at least a part of an irradiation optical system for irradiating the treatment beam of a predetermined spot size and a support part which is held in contact with the skin for supporting the main part above the skin; a rolling member provided in a side of the support part which is brought into contact with the skin; a rotation sensor for sensing a direction and amount of rotation of the rolling member; and a controller which detects a direction and amount of movement of the hand-piece on the skin based on the rotation direction and the rotation amount detected by the rotation sensor, and controls an ON/OFF state of laser irradiation based on the detected moved-position and information on the spot size
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification illustrate an embodiment of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the objects, advantages and principles of the invention.
In the drawings,
FIG. 1
is a schematic perspective view of a laser treatment apparatus in an embodiment according to the present invention;
FIG. 2
is a schematic perspective view of a hand-piece unit in the embodiment;
FIGS. 3A and 3B
are schematic structural views of a moved-position detecting mechanism;
FIG. 4
is a schematic structural view of a main part of a control system and an optical system in the apparatus;
FIG. 5
is an explanatory view showing a laser irradiation method by movement of the hand-piece unit; and
FIG. 6
is a flowchart showing a routine of operation of the apparatus in the embodiment.


REFERENCES:
patent: 5336217 (1994-08-01), Buys et al.
patent: 5743902 (1998-04-01), Trost
patent: 6077294 (2000-06-01), Cho et al.
patent: 6511475 (2003-01-01), Altshuler et al.
patent: 2001/0007068 (2001-07-01), Ota et al.
patent: 0172490 (1986-02-01), None
patent: 1 057 454 (2000-12-01), None
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/692,319, Mukai, filed Oct. 20, 2000.

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