Surgery – Instruments – Corneal cutter or guide for corneal cutter
Reexamination Certificate
1998-11-06
2001-02-06
Buiz, Michael (Department: 3731)
Surgery
Instruments
Corneal cutter or guide for corneal cutter
Reexamination Certificate
active
06183488
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a microkeratome that can be used to remove tissue from a cornea.
2. Background Information
There have been developed a number of different surgical techniques to correct hyperopic or myopic conditions of a human eye. U.S. Pat. No. 4,840,175 issued to Peyman discloses a procedure wherein a thin layer of corneal tissue is cut and removed from a cornea. A laser beam is then directed onto the exposed corneal tissue in a predetermined pattern. The laser beam ablates corneal tissue and changes the curvature of the eye.
U.S. Pat. No. Re. 35,421 issued to Ruiz et al. discloses a device for cutting the cornea to expose an underlying surface for laser ablation. Such a device is commonly referred to as a microkeratome. The Ruiz microkeratome includes a ring that is placed onto a cornea and a blade that is located within an opening of the ring. The device also contains a drive mechanism which moves the blade across the cornea in a first direction while sliding the blade across the eye in a second transverse direction. The device can create a lamella which is flipped back so that the eye can be ablated with the laser.
The Ruiz microkeratome includes a head that houses the blade. The drive mechanism of the keratome moves the head and the blade across the opening of the ring. The head and ring have a pair of dovetail tongue and groove linear bearings which insure that the blade moves in a linear manner across the cornea.
The dovetail configuration of the Ruiz microkeratome requires that the head be loaded from the side of the ring. The surgeon must align the dovetail features before sliding the head onto the ring. Aligning the dovetail features can be difficult and awkward. It would be desirable to provide a microkeratome that can be more readily assembled than keratomes of the prior art.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
One embodiment of the present invention is a medical device that can be used to cut a cornea. The device may include a head that houses a blade. The head and blade can be moved across a ring by a drive assembly. The drive assembly may also move the blade relative to the head to resect the cornea. The head may have a pair of tongues that can slide along corresponding grooves in the ring. The tongues and grooves may be configured so that the head can be loaded onto the ring from a vertical direction.
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Bores Eye Institute, Lamellar Refractive Keratoplasty, 1988.
Steinway Instrument Company, Inc., The Steinway/Barraquer In-Situ Microkeratome Set.
Hughes Gregory
Ross Rod
Buiz Michael
Ho (Jackie ) Tan-Uyen T.
Irell & Manella LLP
Med-Logics, Inc.
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