Methods for laser treatment of soft tissue
AssigneeLaserscope
InventorsScott Davenport, Steven C. Murray, Tony Coleman
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Methods are provided for treating prostate glands or other targeted soft tissue using a solid-state laser. The laser can be operated to generate a pulsed output beam having pulse durations of between 0.1 and 500 milliseconds. The output beam is delivered to the targeted tissue through an optical fiber, preferably terminating in a side-firing probe or diffusing tip. By operating the laser in a long-duration pulse mode, charring of the targeted tissue is initiated quickly, thereby increasing ablation rates and reducing overall procedure time.
Claims45
A method for treating benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH), comprising:
- providing a solid-state laser emitting light with a wavelength of 200 to 1000 nm having a laser element positioned to receive pump radiation from a pump radiation source;
- modulating the pump radiation source to cause the laser element to emit laser light having pulse duration between 0.1 and 500 milliseconds and pulse frequencies between 1 and 500 Hz;
- and
- delivering the laser light to targeted tissue through an optical fiber, wherein the optical fiber terminates in a side-firing probe emitting the laser light in a direction transverse to the longitudinal axis of the optical fiber.
A method for treating benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH), comprising:
- providing a solid-state laser emitting light with a wavelength of 200 to 1000 nm having a laser element positioned to receive pump radiation from a pump radiation source;
- modulating the pump radiation source to cause the laser element to emit laser light having pulse duration between 0.1 and 500 milliseconds and pulse frequencies between 1 and 500 Hz;
- and
- delivering the laser light to targeted tissue, wherein the laser further comprises a frequency doubling element.
A method for treating benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH), comprising:
- providing a solid-state laser emitting light with a wavelength of 200 to 1000 nm having a laser element positioned to receive pump radiation from a pump radiation source;
- modulating the pump radiation source to cause the laser element to emit laser light having pulse duration between 0.1 and 500 milliseconds and pulse frequencies between 1 and 500 Hz;
- and
- delivering the laser light to targeted tissue, further comprising the step of Q-switching the laser to produce a train of micropulses, each micropulse train collectively form a pulse.
A method for treating benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH), comprising:
- providing a solid-state laser emitting light with a wavelength of 200 to 1000 nm having a laser element positioned to receive pump radiation from a pump radiation source;
- modulating the pump radiation source to cause the laser element to emit laser light having pulse duration between 0.1 and 500 milliseconds and pulse frequencies between 1 and 500 Hz;
- and
- delivering the laser light to targeted tissue;
- wherein the pump radiation source is a laser diode.
A method for treating benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH), comprising:
- providing a solid-state laser emitting light with a wavelength of 200 to 1000 nm having a laser element positioned to receive pump radiation from a pump radiation source;
- modulating the pump radiation source to cause the laser element to emit laser light having pulse duration between 0.1 and 500 milliseconds and pulse frequencies between 1 and 500 Hz;
- and
- delivering the laser light to targeted tissue;
- wherein the pump radiation source is an arc lamp.
A method for treating benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH), comprising:
- providing a solid-state laser emitting light with a wavelength of 200 to 1000 nm having a laser element positioned to receive pump radiation from a pump radiation source;
- modulating the pump radiation source to cause the laser element to emit laser light having pulse duration between 0.1 and 500 milliseconds and pulse frequencies between 1 and 500 Hz;
- and
- delivering the laser light to targeted soft tissue, and the laser light has an average power exceeding 20 watts, wherein the laser has a frequency doubling element.
A method for treating benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH), comprising:
- providing a solid-state laser emitting light with a wavelength of 200 to 1000 nm having a laser element positioned to receive pump radiation from a pump radiation source;
- modulating the pump radiation source to cause the laser element to emit laser light having pulse duration between 0.1 and 500 milliseconds and pulse frequencies between 1 and 500 Hz;
- and
- delivering the laser light to targeted soft tissue, and the laser light has an average power exceeding 20 watts, further comprising Q-switching the laser to produce a train of micropulses, each micropulse train collectively form said pulse.
A method for treating benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH), comprising:
- providing a solid-state laser emitting light of a wavelength of 200 to 1000 nm having a laser element positioned to receive pump radiation from a pump radiation source and
- the laser has a beam quality (M2) that is less than or equal to 100 and
- delivering the laser light to prostate tissue.
A method comprising:
- irradiating soft tissue of a body with coherent radiation from a laser having
- a pump radiation source that does not produce enough heat in a lasing element to create a significant amount of thermal lensing in the lasing element
- a wavelength such that the radiation is preferentially absorbed by the tissue rather than a fluid;
- and
- a temperature that is generated by the lasing element that is low enough so that a number of modes of the radiation are few enough so that an average power density is high enough to ablate the tissue leaving less thermal damage than a 60 Watt laser emitting a wavelength near 532 nm.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.