Nidek Co., Ltd.

Munehiro Nakao

Tetsuyuki Miwa

Nobuo Suzuki

Tadashi Kajino

Hidenori Kanda

Masahiro Sugimura

Kiyoshi Makihara

Koki Kato

Makoto Yoshida

Ken Ootsuki

An irrigation/aspiration apparatus for supplying an irrigation fluid from an irrigation source to a surgical site through a surgical instrument to remove the irrigation fluid with residual tissue by aspiration, the apparatus including, a first cassette provided with a first fluid line for supplying the irrigation fluid and a second fluid line for removing the residual tissue by aspiration, and a second cassette attachable to, and detachable from, the first cassette, the second cassette being provided with a connecting fluid line and a coupling member for connecting at least either the first fluid line or the second fluid line to the surgical instrument.

Irrigation/aspiration apparatus and irrigation/aspiration cassette therefore

An ophthalmic apparatus for observing an eye to be examined is disclosed. This apparatus includes an observation optical system including an objective lens, for observing the eye through the objective lens; an illumination optical system including an illumination light source, for illuminating the eye through the objective lens; a polarization beam splitter having a property of transmitting one of linear polarized light beams that mutually perpendicularly intersect, and reflecting another linear polarized light beam, the polarization beam splitter being disposed opposite to the eye to be examined with respect to the objective lens, whereby aligning optical paths of the illumination and observation optical systems in a mutually coaxial relation; and a &frac14; wave plate disposed between the objective lens and the eye to be examined.

Ophthalmic apparatus

A non-contact type tonometer is disclosed, wherein a fluid blowing device blows a compressed air against a cornea of an examinee's eye, a deformation detection device detects a corneal deformed state caused by the fluid, a pressure detection device detects the fluid pressure to be blown by the fluid blowing device, a memory samples data on time-varying pressure detected by the pressure detection device at predetermined time intervals and stores them, and a calculation device takes a predetermined amount of pressure data from those stored in the memory, the pressure data being within a predetermined duration determined relative to the reference time at which a predetermined deformation of the cornea is detected by the deformation detection device. Then, the calculation device calculates an intraocular pressure of the examinee's eye based on the taken pressure data.

Non-contact type tonometer

An ophthalmic apparatus having measurement device for inspection or measurement, and bringing the measurement device into the predetermined positional relationships relative to an eye to be examined, the ophthalmic apparatus providing a moving device for moving the measurement device relatively to the eye to be examined, an alignment target projecting optical system for projecting plural alignment targets onto the periphery of cornea of the eye to be examined, an alignment target detecting optical system for detecting target images which are formed by projecting the alignment targets, a judging device for judging the alignment condition in vertical and lateral direction based on the number and positional relationships of target images which are detected, and an instruction device for instructing the moving device to move based on the result judged by the judging device.

Opthalmic apparatus for judging alignment conditions based on target

In a non-contact type tonometer for blowing compressed gas against an examined eye through a nozzle, when a piston returns to an initial position by a biasing unit for biasing so as to return the piston to the initial position, a piston driving unit is actuated so as to attenuate the piston return speed by applying a force in the upwardly moving direction. Further, the piston is attached a piston rod so as to move in the axial direction of a cylinder, and is provided a gas passage which is closed when the gas is compressed and is opened when the piston returns to the initial position by the movement of the piston rod. Thus, the air compression chamber within the cylinder is caused to conductively connect to the atmospheric open chamber to thereby restrain the interior of the cylinder from becoming negative in pressure. In this way, it is possible to suppress the sucking-in of tears, dust, eyelashes and the like through the nozzle as effectively as possible with a simple structure.

An ophthalmologic alignment device for aligning a measuring system at a predetermined position for an eye to be examined. The user moves the measuring system with a joystick for aligning purposes while observing a frontal eye image with an observation unit. A second moving unit further moves the measuring system moved by the user. An index projection/detection system projects an index onto the eye and detects the reflected index. The controller causes drivers to drive the second moving unit on the basis of the result of the detection of the index projection/detection system. A mode switch switches the movement of the measuring system from a mode in which the observation unit is moved by the first moving unit to a mode in which the observation unit is moved by the second moving unit, whereby the alignment of the eye and the measuring system is achieved easily and with high accuracy, irrespective of the degree of the user's skillfulness in handling the alignment device.

Ophthalmologic alignment device with automatic alignment means

A noncontact type tonometer comprising with a nozzle for directing fluid into a cornea of a patient's eye and for deforming the cornea from a normally convex state, through a flat state, to a concave state, a detector for detecting fluid pressure within the nozzle and for generating pressure data corresponding to the fluid pressure, an optical detector for optically detecting corneal deformation and for generating optical data corresponding to a deformation state from the normally convex state to the concave state, a generator for generating predetermined time interval data according to a predetermined time interval, a clock, cooperable with the optical detector for optically detecting corneal deformation, for detecting an elapsed time interval for the cornea to deform to the flat state from the normally convex state and for generating elapsed time interval data corresponding thereto, a predictor for predicting an optimal time interval for the cornea to deform from the normally convex state to the flat state based upon the optical data and the predetermined time interval data and for generating optimal time interval data corresponding thereto, a comparator for comparing the elapsed time interval data with a predetermined range of the optimal time interval data, a pressure calculator for calculating the fluid pressure according to the pressure detected by the detector for detecting fluid pressure at the elapsed time interval where the cornea deforms to a flat state if the elapsed time interval lies within the predetermined range of the optimal time interval, and a controller for driving the nozzle.

Noncontact type tonometer

An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus for ophthalmology according to the present invention includes a card connector into and from which a memory card is to be inserted and removed, a microcomputer incorporated in the apparatus, and a card interface for data transfer between the memory card and the microcomputer therethrough. Diagnosis data is obtained based on data of the memory card and data in the microcomputer, whereby even when a new program or data necessary for diagnosis is developed, the apparatus can immediately used the new program or data while eliminating the need for being modified. The apparatus thus can readily reproduce patient data and efficiently diagnose many patients.

Growing community of inventors

Toyokawa, Japan

Munehiro Nakao