Optical controller device

Abstract

An improved configuration for a surgical laser instrument to provide the alternate contact cutting and no-contact coagulating of biological tissues by means of a fiber-optically guided irradiation of a laser is disclosed. This configuration includes instrumentation to enable discrimination between background illumination (i.e. xenon illumination scopes, room lights) and white light produced by the burning of tissue residue at the distal fiber tip. White light is described as a light having a wavelength between 0.3 to 0.9 mm. This improvement has the advantages of preventing background illumination from interfering with operation of a laser equipped with a white light feedback control device. Ultimately, this provides the surgeon with a more predictable laser delivery device which subsequently makes the laser safer to use.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.