Phoenix Laser Systems, Inc.

Visx, Inc.

H. Alfred Sklar

Alan M. Frank

Olga M. Ferrer

Fred Rienecker

Steven Schiffer

Charles F. Mcmillan

Paul Harriss

Stewart A. Brown

H Alfred Sklar

Alan M Frank

Jan C Wysopal

Carl F Knopp

William D Fountain

Jerzy Orkiszewski

Charles F McMillan

Michael Persiantsev

Olga M Ferrer

Stewart A Brown

Charles F Mcmillan

A method and system is described that greatly improves the safety and efficacy of ophthalmic laser surgery. The method and system are applicable to precise operations on a target subject to movement during the procedure. The system may comprise the following elements: (1) a user interface, (2) an imaging system, which may include a surgical microscope, (3) an automated tracking system that can follow the movements of an eye, (4) a laser, (5) a diagnostic system, and (6) a fast reliable safety means, for automatically interrupting the laser firing.

Automated laser workstation for high precision surgical and industrial interventions

A method, apparatus and system for template-controlled, precision laser interventions is described that greatly improves interventions such as laser microsurgery, particularly ophthalmic surgery, and industrial micromachining. The instrument and system are applicable to those specialties wherein the positioning accuracy of laser lesions is critical, such as whenever precise operations on a target or series of targets subject to movement during the procedure are to be effected. The system includes a user interface, wherein the user can either draw, adjust, or designate particular template patterns overlaid on a live video images of the target (such as the cornea) which are stabilized and produce an apparently stationary display of the target and provide the means for converting the template pattern into a sequence of automatic motion instructions to direct a laser beam to be sequentially applied replicating the designated template pattern into the corresponding surgical or industrial site.

A method, apparatus and system for template-controlled, precision laser interventions is described that greatly improves the accuracy, speed, range, reliability, versatility, safety, and efficacy of interventions such as laser microsurgery, particularly ophthalmic surgery, and industrial micromachining. The instrument and system are applicable to those specialties wherein the positioning accuracy of laser lesions is critical, wherever accurate containment of the spatial extent of a laser lesion is desirable, and/or whenever precise operations on a target or series of targets subject to movement during the procedure are to be effected. The system thus comprises the following key elements: (1) a user interface, consisting of a video display, microprocessor and controls, (2) an imaging system, which may include a surgical video microscope with zoom capability, (3) an automated 3D target acquisition and tracking system that can follow the movements of the subject tissue, for example an eye, during the operation, thus allowing the surgeon/user to predetermine his firing patern based on an image which is automatically stabilized over time, (4) a laser, with which can be focused so that only the precise lesions described by the user interface are effected, (5) a diagnostic system, incorporating a mapping and topography means for measuring precise surface shapes prior to and subsequent to a procedure, said measurements to be executed on-line within time scales not limited to human response times, and (6) a fast reliable safety means, whereby the laser firing is interrupted automatically, should any conditions arise to warrant such interruption of the procedure.

Automated laser workstation for high precision surgical and industrial

The present invention describes a technique and apparatus for finding spots in an image with substantial noise making it difficult to identify without specialized noise suppression algorithms. In the context of determining corneal shape, as an example of the technique, the reflections of point light sources in or on the cornea have long played a diagnostic role. The image analysis technique described applies the tools of mathematical morphology and prior information about the shape of illumination patterns to remove noise and isolate the points of interest for further mathematical analysis. The output from the technique is a set of pairs matching the detected points in the image with the known location of the illumination.

Apparatus and method of identifying signals in biological tissues

A diagnostic system for support of laser ocular surgery, for example, solves a problem of competition for light which is often encountered when a series of different detectors are used to receive and detect features of a target reflecting an illuminating light beam. The intensity of an illuminating beam, particularly in eye surgery, is limited to a level above which damage to the eye can occur. In a system wherein a plurality of successive beam splitters are used, each reflecting a portion of the light intensity and transmitting the remaining light intensity, the series of detecting devices compete for adequate light intensity for the particular functions being served. The system of the invention solves this problem and increases the effective quantity of light useful from a given input intensity by dividing the light spectrally after its reflection from the eye, thereby making use of a different spectral range of the light at each of the plurality of different detecting devices.

Spectral division of reflected light in complex optical diagnostic and

A system for effecting precision laser surgery includes an intensified surgical video microscope directed at the tissue to be operated upon and having zoom capability. The surgical microscope presents a microscopic image on a video screen in front of the surgeon. Preferably, the video screen is divided into multiple separate sections, with the microscopic video image in one section and precise cross sectional and plan views indicating location presented in the other sections of the screen. These additional views may be generated using Moire interferometry by projecting a Ronchi ruling on the surface of the tissue, in viewing the projection with a camera to obtain all necessary information for contour tracking of the subject surface. Interior elements and interfaces of, for example, the eye are also sensed by a light beam and precisely located and mapped by a computer forming a part of the device. The imaging system of the invention enables the surgeon to have before him abundant visual information on the video screen with indication of precisely where, in three dimensions, a focused surgical laser beam is directed at any time. The system also includes tracking system for following the movements of the subject tissue, for example an eye during surgery. The tracking system is fast enough to track such movement, preferably at the maximum repetition rate of the laser plus a sufficient margin for safety, but at all times faster than the frame rate for the video displays at which the video screen is retraced.

Method and apparatus for precision laser surgery

An ophthalmic diagnostic instrument determines the shape of the cornea through projection of an image onto the cornea through the optics of the diagnostic instrument. The instrument and the method of the invention involve folding a projected pattern of discrete separated point light sources so that the pattern is projected toward the eye coaxially with return collected light reflected off the cornea. The instrument avoids any need for a pattern light source directly adjacent to the eye, and provides the surgeon or other eye care specialist with a real time image accurately displaying the shape of the cornea. The surgeon is thus able to monitor the corneal shape prior to surgery, to monitor its changes during the course of the surgery, and to further monitor the cornea in post operative stages. In a specific embodiment of the invention, a real image of the pattern of point light sources is formed inside or very closely in front of the objective lens of the system so that the objective lens becomes a field lens and the angle of view of the system is enlarged.

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San Francisco, CA, United States of America

H Alfred Sklar