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US 6,293,939 B1Granted
Epithelium removal
OwnerRoger F. Steinertinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Accurate, non-mechanical removal of the epithelium from essentially only the area of the cornea to be treated. In particular, an epithelium-ablative laser device irradiates the selected region of the epithelium with ablative laser energy, a spectroscopic system monitors the ablation and spectroscopically determines whether epithelium is being ablated, and a control system terminates the epithelium removal upon spectroscopic determination of a substantial absence of epithelium ablation.
Claims14
A system for controlled removal of corneal tissue from a selected region of the cornea, said system comprising:
- a cornea-ablative laser device comprising laser pulses for irradiating a region of the cornea with ablative radiation,
- a spectroscopic system arranged to spectroscopically monitor the selected region during the progress of ablation for spectroscopically determining amount of corneal tissue removed by one or more laser pulse of the cornea-ablative laser device, and
- a control system responsive to the spectroscopic system for directing application of ablative radiation from said laser device to said region and termination of application upon a spectroscopic detection of removal of desired amount of corneal tissue.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.