Surgery – Instruments – Light application
Reexamination Certificate
1999-11-01
2001-11-27
Shay, David M. (Department: 3739)
Surgery
Instruments
Light application
C606S010000, C606S013000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06322554
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a laser treatment apparatus for treating an affected area of a patient by irradiating the affected area with a treatment laser beam emitted from a laser source.
2. Description of Related Art
As one of laser treatment apparatus in the ophthalmic field, a YAG laser apparatus has been known. This YAG laser apparatus is used for incising the posterior capsule of a patient's eye to treat after cataract, ripping (or cutting) the vitreous fibers of a patient's eye to treat traction retinal detachment, and so on.
In general, when an operator operates a laser apparatus to irradiate an affected area of a patient to be treated with a treatment laser beam, the operator adjusts the focus of the laser apparatus on the affected area while observing a visible aiming light made coaxial with the treatment laser beam. As an aiming manner of the YAG laser apparatus, there is known a manner of separating (or dividing) aiming light into two luminous flux which will pass on opposite sides of an optical axis of a treatment laser beam, and then overlapping the two luminous flux one another at an aiming point on an affected area (so as to focus on the same position) thereby to facilitate the aiming in a focusing direction. In such the apparatus using the above aiming manner, one fixedly divides the aiming light into two luminous flux in a vertical (i.e., longitudinal) direction or a horizontal (i.e., lateral) direction with respect to an eye to be treated, and another is provided with a rotary function of automatically rotating the aiming light in order to check the overlapping state of the two aiming light beams overlapped one another at one point.
Meanwhile, in the case of posterior capsule incision, the posterior capsule is clouded, which easily reflects the aiming light, so that each position of the two divided aiming light beams can be clearly observed. Accordingly, overlapping the divided aiming light beams at a point is not much difficult. At this time, it is very convenient to automatically rotate the aiming light beams for the purpose of confirming the overlapping state of the aiming light beams.
However, when cutting of the vitreous fibers for traction retinal detachment treatment is carried out, normal portions of the vitreous fibers being transparent, the positions of the aiming light beams are very hard to observe unless the aiming light beams properly fall on the clouded vitreous fibers that pull the retina. Accordingly, in the case where the divisional direction of the aiming light beams differs from the extending direction of the vitreous fibers in the area to be cut, both of the two aiming light beams can not be observed at the same time. When only one of the aiming light beams is observable, it is difficult to determine whether the aiming light beams are overlapped one another (which means that the aiming light beams come into focus at the same point) or only one of the two aiming light beams is viewed. Therefore, it takes a much time to confirm aiming propriety and perform proper aiming (alignment). Alternatively, when the vitreous fibers are cut with the apparatus having the automatic rotating function of aiming light, similarly, fine adjustment is hard and the positions of the aiming light beams can not be confirmed. This may require a long time for conducting proper aiming (alignment) of the apparatus to the affected area of a patient.
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 which enables an operator to easily confirm an aiming (or alignment) state of the apparatus with respect to a treatment area of a patient even if it has directivity, and to efficiently conduct treatment on the treatment 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 irradiating an affected area of a patient with a treatment laser beam, the apparatus including a laser source which emits the treatment laser beam, an irradiation optical system for delivering the treatment laser beam emitted from the laser source to the affected area to irradiate it, an aiming light delivery optical system for forming plural aiming light beams so that an optical axis of the treatment laser beam irradiation optical system is put between the aiming light beams, and delivering the plural aiming light beams to the affected area so that the aiming light beams are focused on a position on which the treatment laser beam is to be focused, manual rotation means for manually rotating the aiming light beams about the irradiation optical axis, automatic rotation means for automatically rotating the aiming light beams about the irradiation optical axis, and selection means for selecting a mode to rotate the aiming light beams from a manual rotation mode conducted by the manual rotation means and an automatic rotation mode conducted by the automatic rotation means.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a laser treatment apparatus for irradiating an affected area of a patient with a treatment laser beam, the apparatus including a laser source which emits the treatment laser beam, an irradiation optical system for delivering the treatment laser beam emitted from the laser source to the affected area to irradiate it, an aiming light delivery optical system including an aiming light source which emits aiming light used for focusing the treatment laser beam to the affected area and a beam dividing member for dividing the aiming light into plural light beams so that an optical axis of the treatment laser beam irradiation optical system is put between the divided aiming light beams, and for delivering the plural aiming light beams to the affected area so that the aiming light beams are focused on a position on which the treatment laser beam is to be focused, a rotating unit including a rotating member which holds the beam dividing member and is rotatable about the irradiation optical axis, a knob and a first gear mechanism for manually rotating the rotating member, a motor and a second gear mechanism for electrically rotating the rotating member, a control unit for driving the motor, and a switch for generating a driving signal to the control unit.
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patent: 4561436 (1985-12-01), Nunnerlyn
patent: 4565197 (1986-01-01), Dahy
patent: 5013311 (1991-05-01), Nouri
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patent: 61-9063 (1986-03-01), None
Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner L.L.P.
Nidek Co. Ltd.
Shay David M.
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