Method for the surgical treatment of the eye

For a method of non-invasive surgical treatment of the eye which comprises the steps of

• forming a convergent treatment laser beam,
• directing the focus of the convergent treatment laser beam onto the structure to be treated,
• shifting the focus with respect to the structure to be a certain distance in front of or behind the structure,
• delivering the treatment laser beam into said focus where the radiation intensity performs the surgery,
• an improvement to prevent damage to the structure of the eye not being treated, the improvement comprising the steps of:
• generating visible ancillary lower power laser observation beams to sense the outside envelope of the treatment laser beam,
• rotating said laser observation beams around the optical axis of said laser treatment beam, said laser observation beams intersecting in the focus position of the laser treatment beam,
• shifting the focus position of the treatment bean along the optical axis with respect to the intersection point of said laser observation beams,
• directing the laser observation beams onto treatment point of the structure to be irradiated so that they intersect said structure and provide dots of light thereon for observation purposes,
• inspecting the path of the observation laser beams to determine if the treatment beam on its pass into the focus will touch eye structure not being treated,
• adjusting the treatment laser beam in accordance with the results of the inspection step to ensure that the treatment beam does not touch structures not to be treated, and
• delivering the treatment laser beam into the focus to cause the surgery.