Surgical laser handpiece for slit incisions
AssigneeCoherent, Inc.
InventorsDale E. Koop, Michael Arnett
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A slit incision handpiece that receives a circular laser beam, reshapes the beam to have an elliptical cross-section, and focuses the beam onto target tissue. Slit incisions of approximately the dimensions of the elliptical beam are formed by stationary exposures on the target tissue from the output of the slit incision handpiece.
Claims9
A surgical handpiece incorporated into an articulated arm for connection to a laser generating a beam having a substantially circular cross-section, and delivering the beam to a target tissue to create a slit incision, comprising:
- an articulated arm having straight segments connected end to end by rotatable joints;
- an optic in each of the joints whereby the laser beam traveling down each of the segments is redirected down the subsequent segment;
- and
- at least one of the optics in one of the joints being a beam shaping mirror that changes the shape of the beam in a manner so that the beam has an elliptical cross-section when the beam reaches the target tissue.
A surgical handpiece for connection to a laser that generates a beam having a substantially circular cross-section, said handpiece for delivering the beam to a target tissue to create a slit incision, the handpiece comprising:
- conduit means having a central channel for transmitting the laser beam;
- and
- optical means within the channel for changing the shape of the beam in a manner so that the beam has an elliptical cross-section when the beam reaches the target tissue whereby an elongated strip of tissue can be ablated.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.