Device and assembly for positioning and stabilizing an eye

An eye-contact assembly for stabilizing a patient's eye at a selected position in an external coordinate system, comprising

• (a) an eye-contact member having (i) an inner contact surface for contacting a front surface of a patient's eye, and an outer surface and (ii) a vacuum port formed within said eye-contact member, by which a negative pressure can be applied between a patient's eye and the contact surface, to stabilize the position of the eye with respect to the contact device,
• (b) a positioning assembly comprising a positioning arm for positioning the eye-contact member at a selected position, with a patient eye stabilized therein, and
• (c) releasable coupling members carried on the contact member and positioning arm for releasably coupling the device to the arm with a release force sufficient to allow the device and a patient eye stabilized therein to be moved by the arm, and to release from one another when an above-threshold force is applied by or to the eye,
• (d) a control unit, configured to control the positioning arm, wherein, when a force threshold of a force, caused by patient movement and being between the patient's eye and the eye-contact member is reached, the control unit restricts further movement of the positioning arm and the eye-contact member toward the eye while the patient's eye remains stabilized in the eye-contact member;
• and
• (f) a force gauge operatively coupled to the positioning assembly for determining and reporting to the control unit a force between the eye and the eye-contact member resulting from movement by the patient during a treatment procedure.

A eye contact assembly for stabilizing a patient's eye at a selected position in an external coordinate system, comprising

• (a) an eye-contact member having (i) an inner contact surface for contacting a front surface of an eye and an outer contact surface and (ii) a vacuum port formed within the eye-contact member by which a negative pressure can be applied between a patient's eye and the contact surface, to stabilize the position of the eye with respect to the contact device,
• (b) a biasing mechanism for biasing the eye-contact member against the eye with a biasing force of between 1-25 grams, thereby to stabilize the position of the eye and hold the assembly in position against the eye when a negative pressure of between 20-50 mmHg is applied to the vacuum port,
• (c) a positioning assembly comprising a positioning arm for positioning the eye-contact member at a selected position, with a patient's eye stabilized therein, and
• (d) releasable coupling members on the contact member and positioning arm for coupling the contact member to the arm with a release force sufficient (i) to allow the contact member and a patient's eye stabilized therein to be moved by the arm, and (ii) to allow the releasable coupling members to release from one another when a force exceeding the release force is applied by the patient to the eye-contact member, resulting in the eye-contact member breaking away from the remainder of the contact assembly, wherein the release force is greater than the biasing force.

An eye-contact device for stabilizing a patient's eye at a selected position in an external coordinate system, comprising

• (a) an eye-contact member having an inner contact surface for contacting a front surface of an eye and an outer surface,
• (b) a vacuum port formed within said eye-contact by which a negative pressure can be applied between a patient's eye and the contact surface, to stabilize the position of a patient's eye with respect to the contact device, when the device is biased against eye,
• (c) a position detector comprising one of more beam-directing elements attached to the eye-contact member by which the position of the eye-contact member, and thus the position of a patient's eye stabilized in the device, in an external coordinate system can be determined by one or more external beam sensors positioned in the external coordinate system,
• (d) a biasing mechanism for biasing the eye-contact member against the eye with a biasing force toward the eye, thereby to stabilize the position of the eye and hold the assembly in position against the eye when a negative pressure is applied to the vacuum port,
• (e) a positioning assembly comprising a positioning arm for positioning the eye-contact member at a selected position, with a patient's eye stabilized therein, and
• (f) releasable coupling members on the contact member and positioning arm for coupling the contact member to the arm with a release force sufficient (i) to allow the contact member and a patient's eye stabilized therein to be moved by the arm, and (ii) to allow the releasable coupling members to release from one another when a force exceeding the release force is applied by the patient to the eye-contact member, resulting in the eye-contact member breaking away from the remainder of the contact assembly, wherein the release force is greater than the biasing force.