Medical device applying localized high intensity light and heat, particularly for destruction of the endometrium

A medical device for conducting laser energy from a region outside the body to a cavity within the body and for applying the laser energy to the body both as radiation and as heat, the device comprising:

• an elongated laser energy conduit having distal and proximal ends for extending from a proximal end region outside the body to a distal end region at the cavity within the body;
• a source of laser energy optically coupled to the laser energy conduit for transmitting laser energy from the proximal end region to the distal end region of the conduit;
• a beam splitter means, located at the distal end region of the elongated laser energy conduit and receiving the laser energy transmitted by the source of laser energy to the distal end region of the conduit, for splitting the received laser energy into at least a first and a second portion of laser energy;
• an element having a closed distal end wall receiving the first portion of laser energy from the beam splitter means for converting the received first portion of laser energy to heat, said element having a cavity defined therein within which said distal end of said conduit is received, said beam splitter means being located entirely within said cavity;
• and
• an open aperture, defined by and positioned within the element, and communicating with said cavity for receiving the second portion of laser energy from the beam splitter means for radiatively communicating this received second portion of laser energy substantially transversely to the axis of the elongated conduit and externally to the medical device.

A method of selectively destroying material within a patient's body, including the patient's own tissue, by the simultaneous application of localized high heat and another heat, less localized and less high, the method comprising:

• radiantly heating material within a patient's body by directional irradiation with high intensity laser light emitted from an elongate probe having a transversely eccentric protruding probe portion that defines an apertured cavity therein, said probe having a distal end of an elongate laser light energy transmitting conduit received in said cavity so as to provide a standoff of said distal end from the material to be destroyed, the laser light being channeled through said conduit into said apertured cavity and sufficiently localized and sufficiently intense so as to cause sufficiently localized radiant heating of the material upon which the laser light impinges so as to destroy the material;
• while simultaneously
• conductively heating tissue of the patient's body in regions that are local to the region of material destruction with and by thermal contact with the heated mass of the same probe, producing heat that is less localized and less high than the high intensity light but sufficiently hot so as to contribute to the destruction of the patient's body tissue with which the probe mass comes into contact;
• wherein the high intensity light is irradiated from said apertured cavity substantially in a direction transverse to the longitudinal axis of the light transmitting conduit at said distal end while the conductive heating is by thermal contact of the patient's body tissue with the probe and is substantially omnidirectional.

A method of delivering energy from a region outside the body to cause localized heating within a cavity of the body, the method comprising:

• channeling light energy in an elongated optical fiber having a distal end from a source of light energy located at a region outside the body to an elongate eccentric probe head surrounding said distal end and located within a cavity of the body;
• directing at the probe head a portion of the channeled light energy transversely relative to the longitudinal axis of the optical fiber at said distal end through an eccentrically protruding portion of said probe head and outwardly from the probe head as light sufficiently intense so as to cause localized heating of a surface of the body cavity upon which the light impinges;
• and
• absorbing at the probe head a portion of the channeled light energy sufficient so as to cause heating of the probe head adequate to cause in turn localized heating of a surface of the body cavity structure with which the probe head is in thermal contact.

A device for applying a laser energy beam to a selected body site, comprising:

• an elongated, laser energy transmitting conduit having a proximal end region with a proximal end defined thereon and a distal end region with a distal end defined thereon, and defining a laser energy path;
• and
• a hollow, bulbous element mounted on said distal end region of said conduit, said element including:
• a cavity defined therein within which said distal end of said conduit is received;
• a closed distal end wall blocking any transmission of a laser energy beam distally from said element coaxial with said laser energy path at said distal end of said conduit;
• a laterally open aperture defined in said element and communicating with said cavity, said aperture being open to fluid communication from outside said element through said aperture into said cavity to said distal end of said conduit;
• and
• a reflecting mirror surface defined on said closed distal end wall and arranged to reflect a laser energy beam exiting from said conduit as a lateral laser energy beam exiting said element along a lateral beam path through said aperture, said lateral beam path being transverse to said laser energy path at said distal end of said conduit.