Medical optical fiber with protective tip and method of manufacture therefor
AssigneeLumenis Ltd.
InventorsArkady Khachaturov, Tal Waisman
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present invention is directed towards medical optical fibers with protective tips for use with endoscopes for laser based treatment of internal bodily organs and method of manufacture therefor. The medical optical fibers have a short stripped medical optical fiber section and a protective tip provided thereon to encapsulate both the stripped medical optical fiber section and the jacket tip immediately therebehind.
Claims20
A medical optical fiber for use with an endoscope for laser based treatment of internal bodily organs, the medical optical fiber comprising:
- an optical fiber comprising a distal optical fiber tip having an optical fiber end face transverse to a longitudinal axis of the optical fiber, wherein the optical fiber includes at least an optical fiber core and a cladding;
- a jacket axially enclosing the optical fiber, the jacket comprising a distal jacket tip having a jacket end face transverse to the longitudinal axis, wherein the jacket end face is a first length from the optical fiber end face and wherein the distal jacket tip comprises an aperture exposing a portion of the optical fiber enclosed by the jacket without exposing the optical fiber core;
- and
- a protective tip encapsulating the distal jacket tip, the jacket end face, and the optical fiber end face, and extending along the longitudinal axis a second length greater than the first length, wherein the protective tip contacts the portion of the optical fiber exposed by the aperture;
- wherein the protective tip is configured to fragment or melt responsive to incidence of laser energy and wherein the protective tip has a dimension greater than a dimension of the jacket.
A medical optical fiber configured to be inserted into an endoscope, comprising:
- an optical fiber comprising a distal optical fiber tip having an optical fiber end face transverse to a longitudinal axis of the optical fiber, wherein the optical fiber includes at least an optical fiber core and a cladding;
- a jacket axially enclosing the optical fiber, the jacket comprising a distal jacket tip having a jacket end face transverse to the longitudinal axis, the distal jacket tip comprising an aperture exposing a portion of the optical fiber enclosed by the jacket without exposing the optical fiber core;
- and
- a protective tip encapsulating the distal jacket tip, the jacket end face, and the optical fiber end face,
- wherein the protective tip contacts the portion of the optical fiber through the aperture.
A medical optical fiber configured to be inserted into an endoscope, comprising:
- an optical fiber comprising at least an optical fiber core and a cladding, the optical fiber comprising a distal optical fiber tip having an optical fiber end face transverse to a longitudinal axis of the optical fiber;
- a jacket axially enclosing the optical fiber, the jacket comprising a distal jacket tip having a jacket end face transverse to the longitudinal axis;
- and
- a protective tip encapsulating the distal jacket tip, the jacket end face, and the optical fiber end face, the distal jacket tip comprising a plurality of apertures exposing a portion of the optical fiber enclosed by the jacket without exposing the optical fiber core,
- wherein the protective tip contacts the portion of the optical fiber through the plurality of apertures, and
- wherein the protective tip has a diameter greater than a diameter of the jacket.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.