Medical optical fiber with protective tip and method of manufacture therefor

A method manufacturing a medical optical fiber for use with an endoscope for laser based treatment of internal bodily organs, the method comprising the steps of :

• (a) providing a medical optical fiber having a longitudinal medical optical fiber axis, the medical optical fiber having
• i) an optical fiber having a distal optical fiber tip , the optical fiber tip having an optical fiber end face transverse to the longitudinal medical optical fiber axis,
• the optical fiber including an innermost optical core having an optical core end face central at the optical fiber end face, and
• ii) a jacket surrounding the optical fiber, the jacket having a distal jacket tip with a jacket end face transverse to the longitudinal medical optical fiber axis,
• the jacket tip having an external maximum dimension D1 transverse to the longitudinal medical optical fiber axis,
• the jacket end face being recessed with respect to the optical fiber end face to leave a stripped medical optical fiber section;
• and
• (b) providing a protective tip encapsulating the optical fiber end face and the jacket end face therewithin and having an external maximum dimension D2 transverse to the longitudinal optical fiber axis where D2>D1,
• the protective tip having a leading protective tip surface forward of the optical fiber end face and a trailing protective tip surface spaced apart from the jacket end face along the longitudinal medical optical fiber axis whereby the protective tip encapsulates the stripped medical optical fiber section and overlaps the jacket tip between the jacket end face and the trailing protective tip surface,
• the protective tip being made of material which absorbs laser energy and one or more of fragments or melts, wherein on delivery of laser energy through the medical optical fiber, at least some of the leading protective tip surface forward of the optical fiber end face fragments or melts for enabling delivery of laser energy through the optical core end face to an internal bodily organ.