Claims
- 1. A method for treating biological tissue comprising the steps of:
- generating a pulsed laser output from an erbium doped gain medium excited by an optical pump source, said laser output pulses having a length in the range of 70-200 microseconds and controlled by the activation period of the optical pump source and having a repetition rate greater than 100 hertz; and
- delivering the pulsed laser output to the biological tissue through a fiberoptic endoprobe with an energy per pulse of at least 0.25 millijoules to cut, vaporize, ablate, incise or emulsify the tissue.
- 2. A method as recited in claim 1 further including the step of aspirating the tissue which has been cut, vaporized, ablated, incised or emulsified.
- 3. A method as recited in claim 1 wherein the energy per pulse delivered to the tissue is at least 0.5 millijoules.
- 4. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the pulsed laser output has a repetition rate of at least 150 hertz.
- 5. A method for treating biological tissue comprising the steps of:
- generating a pulsed laser output from a medium excited by an optical pump source, said pulsed laser output having a repetition rate greater than 100 hertz, a pulse length in the range of 70-200 microseconds and controlled by the activation period of the optical pump source, and an output wavelength of 2.8 to 2.9 microns; and
- delivering the pulsed laser output to the biological tissue through a fiberoptic endoprobe with an energy per pulse of at least 0.25 millijoules to cut, vaporize, ablate, incise or emulsify the tissue.
- 6. A method as recited in claim 5 further including the step of aspirating the tissue which has been cut, vaporized, ablated, incised or emulsified.
- 7. A method as recited in claim 5 wherein the energy per pulse delivered to the tissue is at least 0.5 millijoules.
- 8. A method of performing photophacoemulsification comprising the steps of:
- generating a pulsed laser output from a medium excited by an optical pump source, said pulsed laser output having a repetition rate greater than 100 hertz, having a pulse length in the range of 70-200 microseconds and controlled by the activation period of the optical pump source, and an output wavelength of 2.8 to 2.9 microns;
- supplying the laser output to the input end of a delivery device;
- positioning a delivery end of the delivery device within the vitreous of the eye to be treated; and
- delivering the pulsed laser output to the vitreous of the eye with an energy per pulse of at least 0.25 millijoules to emulsify the tissue and simultaneously aspirating the emulsified tissue.
- 9. A method as recited in claim 5, wherein the pulsed laser output has a repetition rate of at least 150 hertz.
- 10. A method as recited in claim 8 wherein the energy per pulse delivered to the tissue is at least 0.5 millijoules.
- 11. A method as recited in claim 8, wherein the pulsed laser output has a repetition rate of at least 150 hertz.
Parent Case Info
This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 08/694,462, filed Aug. 12, 1996 now U.S. Pat. No. 5,642,370, which in turn is a file-wrapper-continuation of application Ser. No. 08/422,827, filed Apr. 17, 1995 now abandoned.
US Referenced Citations (32)
Foreign Referenced Citations (1)
Number |
Date |
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0 335 714 |
Oct 1989 |
EPX |
Continuations (2)
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Number |
Date |
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Parent |
694462 |
Aug 1996 |
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Parent |
422827 |
Apr 1995 |
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