JP2009226156A - Intraocular lighting probe - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an intraocular lighting probe which is used as an illumination light and effectively and surely carries out a fundus examination by performing processing for lowering irradiation light intensity to an irradiation part even if a light source of laser light with retina optical toxicity is arranged. <P>SOLUTION: The intraocular lighting probe is constituted so that the chip end of the cylindrical body made of quartz glass or plastic passing laser light is inserted into the eyeball of a subject eye, and laser light is emitted via the chip end of the body to illuminate the inside of an eyeball, wherein a diffusion light irradiation part for uniformly irradiating the fundus surface with the diffusion light of the laser light is provided on the chip end of the body. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an intraocular illumination probe for inspecting a patient's eyeball, and more particularly to an intraocular illumination probe suitably used for examination of the retina or choroid by fluorescent fundus imaging.

Among various diseases in the ophthalmological field, fundus diseases are mainly caused by vascular lesions such as vascular abnormalities or bleeding on the back wall of the eyeball, that is, the fundus, and therefore, examination of the fundus is very important in the treatment. Among them, when examining retinal and choroidal vascular lesions more accurately, fluorescent fundus angiography is used as one of the most important examination methods.
In fluorescent fundus angiography, a contrast medium that fluoresces is injected into a patient to circulate the contrast medium in the blood vessel. Then, the contrast medium circulating in the blood vessel is excited by irradiating the fundus with illumination light having a wavelength corresponding to the contrast medium, and the blood vessel is imaged.
In this examination method, since the blood vessels of the retina and choroid can be accurately imaged almost as they are, it is possible to examine the state of blood vessels and tissues in detail and to grasp the circulation dynamics of the retina and choroid. Therefore, not only can the eye fundus be examined accurately, but also when the retina or choroid is operated, it can be used very favorably for the purpose of determining the surgical site.

In recent years, the above-mentioned fluorescence fundus angiography has made great progress, and more precise examinations can be carried out for diagnosis of fundus diseases. In retinal vitrectomy, which is important as surgery for fundus disease, It has become indispensable. However, if vitreous hemorrhage or vitreous opacification occurs, observation of the fundus is hindered, and therefore fundus examination by fluorescent fundus imaging cannot be performed before surgery. Therefore, it becomes difficult to determine the operation target site.
Therefore, conventionally, an operation for removing the bleeding site, turbidity, and the like from the vitreous body is performed first, and then an image of the fundus is recorded by fluorescent fundus imaging, and the operation is performed while viewing this image. Vitreous surgery in this case is carried out based on findings from a surgical microscope, but there is a possibility that the avascular zone and new blood vessels will be insufficiently understood only by findings from the surgical microscope. Furthermore, there may be cases where re-bleeding occurs in the hyaline vagina after the operation and fluorescent fundus imaging cannot be performed.
Therefore, in recent years, various techniques have been proposed for clarifying the region to be operated by performing a fundus examination during the operation. For example, it describes that ophthalmic surgery is performed using the apparatus described in Patent Document 1. Patent Document 1 has a main body formed of a material that transmits light, and is inserted through a port opened in a side portion of an eye to be examined during ophthalmic surgery. In the intraocular illumination probe that can emit light for illuminating the inside of the eye to be examined, a scattering optical unit that scatters laser light when the light transmitted from the light source is laser light is provided at the tip portion. An intraocular illumination probe is described which is characterized in that
Japanese Patent No. 3929735

However, when laser light having retinal phototoxicity is used in Patent Document 1, it is necessary to control the irradiation light intensity through a filter. For this reason, if a filter is forgotten, there is a risk of adversely affecting the patient's retina during surgery.
Therefore, the present invention provides an eye that can be used as illumination light even when a laser light source having retinal phototoxicity is provided by performing processing to lower the irradiation light intensity at the emission site, and can efficiently and reliably perform fundus examination. An object is to provide a probe for internal illumination.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the main body portion is made of a quartz glass or plastic cylinder that transmits laser light, and the distal end portion of the main body portion is inserted into the eyeball of the eye to be examined. In an intraocular illumination probe that illuminates the inside of the eyeball by irradiating a laser beam through the portion, a diffused light emitting unit that irradiates the distal end portion of the main body with the diffused light of the laser beam at a uniform intensity on the fundus Is an intraocular illumination probe.
Irradiation with uniform luminous intensity means that the light emitted from the intraocular illumination probe irradiates with the same luminous intensity on the fundus.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, the tip portion of the main body is formed in a conical shape or a shell shape, and a coating for attenuating the luminous intensity of the emitted light is formed on the tip of the tip of the main body. The probe for intraocular illumination according to claim 1, wherein the diffused light emitting portion is configured.

  The invention according to claim 3 is configured such that the diffused light irradiating portion is formed by forming a tip portion of the main body portion into a conical shape or a bullet shape, and forming a plurality of irregularities on the surface thereof. 2. The intraocular illumination probe according to 1.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the diffused light emitting portion protrudes coaxially from a first cylinder having a smaller diameter than the main body protruding coaxially from the distal end portion of the main body, and from the distal end of the first circular cylinder. The intraocular illumination probe according to claim 1, wherein the probe has at least a second cylinder having a smaller diameter than the first cylinder, and the tip portion of the main body is formed in a step shape as a whole. is there.

  The invention according to claim 5 is the intraocular illumination according to claim 1, wherein the diffused light emitting portion is formed by forming the main body portion in a cylindrical shape and providing a diffusion lens at the tip of the main body portion. Probe.

  According to the present invention, since the intraocular illumination probe has the diffused light irradiation unit, the laser light output from the light source can be diffused and irradiated. For this reason, it is possible to reduce the luminous intensity of the laser light per unit area. That is, the light intensity of the laser light can be reduced to a safe level that is substantially free of retinal phototoxicity, and the visible laser light can be irradiated to a wide area in the eye to be examined. As a result, it can be used very suitably as an intraocular illumination means particularly in fluorescent fundus imaging.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the eyeball illumination device according to the present embodiment includes an intraocular illumination probe 10, a laser surgical probe 20, and an integrated light source unit 30.

  The intraocular illumination probe 10 is connected to the integrated light source unit 30 by the illumination light guide fiber 12. As shown in FIG. 2, the intraocular illumination probe 10 has a cylindrical main body 11 having a predetermined length. The main body 11 is fitted into a cylindrical cannula 13, and its tip protrudes from the cannula by a predetermined length. Further, a cylindrical hand piece 14 is fitted so as to cover a part of the cannula 13. Further, a collar portion 15 is provided at the distal end portion of the cannula 13, that is, the end portion on the side from which the main body portion 11 projects.

  The illumination laser light output from the integrated light source unit 30 is guided to one end (incident end) of the main body 11 by the illumination light guide fiber 12, and the other end (exit end / It is comprised so that it may radiate | emit from a front-end | tip part. Furthermore, in the intraocular illumination probe 10 according to the present invention, a diffused light irradiation unit 11a that diffuses emitted light is provided at the emission end. As will be described later, the diffused light irradiating unit 11 a diffuses visible laser light in a wavelength range from green to blue that is output from the integrated light source unit 30 and guided to the main body unit 11. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the luminous intensity of the visible laser light per unit area, reduce the retinal phototoxicity of the visible laser light, and irradiate the wide area of the eye E with the visible laser light. Therefore, the fundus examination based on the fluorescence fundus imaging can be performed more efficiently and reliably.

  As a specific configuration of the main body 11, an optical fiber is used in this embodiment. That is, it is not particularly limited as long as it is formed of a material that transmits light and has a cylindrical shape. Various optical materials used for optical fibers and the like can be suitably used as the light transmitting material. Therefore, although it may be made of plastic, in Example 1, quartz glass is used. Since quartz glass has the lowest light transmission loss, visible laser light emitted from the integrated light source unit 30 can be efficiently emitted to the eye E. In order to adjust the refractive index of the main body 11, glass components such as various oxides and fluorides may be added to quartz. Moreover, in order to improve the luminous intensity of the main-body part 11, you may coat | cover the circumference | surroundings with a urethane resin, an epoxy resin, or a silicon resin.

The specific configuration of the diffused light irradiation unit 11a only needs to be a configuration capable of diffusing at least visible laser light. In Example 1, as shown in FIG. 2, the diffused light irradiation unit 11 a has a tip portion (outgoing end portion) of the main body portion 11 having a conical shape or a bullet shape, and a coating for attenuating laser light at the tip. Forming. Specifically, a conical shape with an apex angle of 18 ° to 43 ° or a round shape with a rounded tip is formed with the tip of the optical cable having an outer diameter of 1000 μm as the apex. The conical shape may be a truncated cone shape having a flat portion at the tip.
The main body portion 11 has a conical shape or a shell shape, and the tip portion has a structure that does not transmit laser light, so that the visible laser light emitted from the diffused light irradiation portion 11a is uniformly irradiated over a wide range. be able to. Further, since the light intensity of the laser light is attenuated, the laser light having a wavelength having retinal phototoxicity can be blocked, and the fundus surgery can be performed safely.
Further, since the diffused light irradiation part 11a is integrally formed by processing the tip part of the main body part 11, an increase in the number of parts of the intraocular illumination probe 10 is avoided.
There is no particular limitation on the method of processing the front end portion (outgoing end portion) of the main body portion 11 into the diffused light irradiation portion 11a. As a method for processing the tip portion, grinding with a diamond grindstone can be used. Quartz glass is a very brittle material, but it can be precisely processed by giving fine vibrations by ultrasonic waves to the diamond grindstone. A thin film of metal or resin is formed in order to make the tip portion difficult to transmit light. As a method for forming a thin film, it is necessary to consider the influence on the human body, and therefore vapor deposition of gold or silver is suitable.

  The specific configuration of the illumination light guide fiber 12 is not particularly limited, and a general optical fiber can be used. The size, material, etc. are not particularly limited, and quartz glass or plastic may be used in the same manner as the main body 11.

As described above, the main body 11 is covered with the cannula 13 and the handpiece 14 is provided so as to cover a part of the cannula 13.
The main body 11 is fitted to the cannula 13. And the clearance gap produced between the main-body part 11 and the cannula 13 performs caulking, and has taken the structure where a bodily fluid etc. do not permeate | penetrate from this clearance gap.
In the first embodiment, the cannula 13 is made of stainless steel. However, the specific configuration is not particularly limited, and various cannulas used in the medical field can be suitably used. In the first embodiment, the handpiece 14 is made of ABS resin. And the handpiece 14 of the tubular structure which covers the cannula 13 by the side of the incident end of the main-body part 11 is used. However, the specific configuration of the handpiece 14 is not particularly limited as long as the intraocular illumination probe 10 can be easily grasped during fundus examination or surgery.

The collar portion 15 is formed to have a collar-like structure at a position on the rear side of the diffused light irradiation portion 11a, that is, an end portion of the cannula 13 on the side where the main body portion 11 projects. The collar portion 15 has a substantially disk shape. By providing the collar portion 15, it is possible to avoid a situation in which the intraocular illumination probe 10 is excessively pushed into the eyeball.
The collar portion 15 has a structure integrated with the cannula 13. The material of the collar portion has such a strength that it can function as a stopper of the intraocular illumination probe 10 and does not adversely affect the eye E.

  The laser surgical probe 20 is connected to the integrated light source unit 30 by a surgical light guide fiber 22 and has a cylindrical shape like the intraocular illumination probe 10. The surgical laser light emitted from the integrated light source 30 is guided to one end (incident end) of the laser surgical probe 20 by the surgical light guide fiber 22 and emitted from the other end (exit end). It is supposed to be. The specific configuration of the laser surgical probe 20 is not particularly limited, and an optical fiber dedicated for surgery used in a conventionally known laser photocoagulation surgery can be suitably used.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the integrated light source unit 30 includes a light source control unit 31, a laser output safety control unit 33, an argon laser light source 34, a guide light laser diode 35, a first laser diode 36, an optical system 37, and a laser output. A detection unit 26 is provided.

  The light source control unit 31 is a control unit that controls the operation of the integrated light source unit 30 and controls the generation of laser light from each of the light sources so that a fundus examination can be performed even during surgery, as will be described later. The specific configuration is not particularly limited, and a general arithmetic control circuit or the like can be suitably used.

The laser output safety control unit 33 reduces the output of various laser beams used for intraocular illumination among the various light sources included in the integrated light source unit 30 to a safe level that does not damage the retina. Although the specific configuration is not particularly limited, when the illumination light source is a laser diode, the output of laser light can be reduced by an electric circuit. On the other hand, when the laser light source for intraocular illumination is an argon laser tube, an ND filter (a neutral density filter) can be used.
In the first embodiment, the laser light source for eyeball illumination is the first laser diode 36. When such a laser diode is used as a light source, there is an advantage that the maximum output is as low as several tens of mW, the minimum output can correspond to the fundus contrast illumination intensity, and the power consumption is low. Therefore, if the first laser diode 36 is used as an illumination light source, the output of the illumination laser beam can be controlled only by an electric circuit. Therefore, the laser output safety control unit 33 in the first embodiment may be an arithmetic control circuit that can be integrated with the light source control unit 31 in practice.
The laser output safety control unit 33 is more preferably provided with a white light source 33a having an emission path parallel to the laser beam emission path. When the laser light as the illumination light source is not output, the illumination light for observation can be always guided from the illumination light guide fiber 12 to the intraocular illumination probe 10 from the white light source 33a. Therefore, it is possible to more effectively and effectively carry out the observation of the eyeball by the operator's visual observation without fluorescence fundus imaging.

  Here, the portion where the white light source 33 a is provided is not limited to the laser output safety control unit 33. However, in the configuration including the laser output safety control unit 33 as in the present invention, the laser output safety control unit 33 is provided with the white light source 33a so as to have an emission path parallel to the emission path of the laser light. It is preferable that the eyeball can be irradiated without attenuating white light.

  If the laser output safety control unit 33 in this embodiment is actually an arithmetic control circuit that can be integrated with the light source control unit 31, the laser output safety control unit 33 is simply parallel to the laser beam emission path. The white light source 33a may be provided independently so as to have an emission path. Further, the white light emitted from the white light source 33a and the laser light emitted from the laser output safety control unit 33 are switched by the switching mirror 37h and emitted from the intraocular illumination probe 10. .

The argon laser light source 34 is a surgical light source that emits coagulation laser light emitted from the tip of the laser surgical probe 20 to a target site (surgical site) of the fundus M of the eye E, and is a general argon laser tube. Can be used.
The argon laser has a particularly strong oscillation line at a green wavelength of about 515 nm and a blue-green wavelength of about 488 nm, and is a laser that is suitably used for medical lasers such as ophthalmology and dermatology. In addition, light in the wavelength range from green to blue can be used as contrast light in fluorescein fluorescence fundus imaging because it also serves as excitation light that can excite fluorescein to cause fluorescence.

  The guide light laser diode 35 is an index light source that emits laser light (guide light) as an index that is mixed with surgical laser light (argon laser light) and guides the spot of the laser light to the surgical target site. The specific configuration is not particularly limited as long as it is a laser beam that can emit a laser beam that can serve as a guide beam. In this embodiment, a laser diode that emits a laser beam having a red wavelength of about 640 nm is used.

The first laser diode 36 is an illumination light source (visible laser light source) in the present invention, and excites fluorescein to fluoresce the visible laser light in the wavelength range of green to blue, that is, the illumination laser light for illuminating the eyeball. To emit. As the excitation light of fluorescein, laser light in the wavelength range of 465 nm to 490 nm can be suitably used. Therefore, the wavelengths of visible laser light in this embodiment are about 488 nm and about 512 nm. Further, the irradiation light intensity on the fundus M, that is, the irradiation light intensity when it reaches the surface of the fundus M of the eye E after being emitted from the distal end portion (diffuse light irradiation unit 11a) of the intraocular illumination probe 10 is 0. It is 22 mW · cm ² or less.

  In the present invention, the illumination light intensity of the illumination laser beam on the surface of the fundus M is set within a predetermined range by performing feedback control that reflects the detection result of the laser output detection unit 26 in the control by the laser output safety control unit 33. is doing.

Laser light from each light source is emitted outside the integrated light source unit 30 via the optical system 37, and the intraocular illumination probe 10 and the laser surgical probe 20 are transmitted by the illumination light guide fiber 12 and the surgical light guide fiber 22. Until the eye fundus M of the eye E is irradiated.
In the first embodiment, the optical system 37 includes a lens 37a that condenses the laser light emitted from the argon laser light source 34, a lens 37b that condenses the guide light emitted from the guide light laser diode 35, and a guide to the laser light. The half mirror (semi-transparent mirror) 37c used for mixing the light, the lens 37d for condensing the visible laser light emitted from the first laser diode 36, the light emitted from the laser output safety control unit 33 or the white light source 33a is switched. It includes optical components such as a switching mirror 37h. The specific configuration of these optical components is not particularly limited, and a conventionally known configuration can be used. In addition, other optical components may be included in accordance with the shape of the integrated light source unit 30 or the like, and some of the optical components may not be included.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the argon laser light source 34 and the guide laser diode 35 are arranged so that the optical paths of the laser beams intersect each other substantially perpendicularly, and a half mirror 37c is inclined and provided at the intersection. It has been. Since the half mirror 37c has translucency, the surgical laser light incident from the back surface can be transmitted as it is and emitted from the integrated light source unit 30. Further, the half mirror 37 c arranged at an inclination can reflect the guide light incident from the side in the same direction as the surgical laser light and emit it from the integrated light source unit 30. Therefore, the guide light can be mixed with the surgical laser beam by the half mirror 37c.

The laser output detection unit 26 is a power sensor that detects the luminous intensity of the illumination laser beam, and outputs the detection result to the laser output safety control unit 33, whereby the output of the illumination laser beam on the surface of the fundus M, that is, the irradiation luminous intensity. It functions as a calibration device (calibration device) that keeps constant.
For a subject or patient undergoing fundus examination or fundus surgery, there are individual differences in eyeball size. Therefore, even if the illumination laser beam is emitted from the intraocular illumination probe 10 with a constant irradiation light intensity, the fundus M cannot always be illuminated with an appropriate irradiation light intensity at an irradiation interval of about 20 mm. Therefore, before performing fluorescence fundus angiography, calibration is performed to set the luminous intensity of the illumination laser light irradiated to the surface of the fundus M according to the size of the eyeball of the subject (patient) to 0.22 mW / cm ² or less. There is a need.
Note that the feedback control by the laser output detection unit 26 may be performed only once for one patient before fluorescent fundus angiography or surgery based on measurement of the axial length, and does not need to be performed during surgery. .

  Here, the fluorescence fundus contrast method performed in Example 1 will be described. Fluorescent fundus imaging methods have different applications depending on the wavelength of fluorescence generated from the contrast agent and its characteristics. Specifically, when imaging a retinal blood vessel, fluorescein fluorescent fundus imaging (FAG) using fluorescein as a contrast agent and visible light in the green to blue wavelength range as illumination light is particularly suitable. It is. In the present invention, in this FAG, visible laser light in a wavelength range that has not been used at all for retinal phototoxicity is used as illumination light.

  Next, a method for performing a fundus examination using the eyeball illumination device in the present embodiment will be described.

First, preliminary preparation is performed for the eye E. That is, as shown in FIG. 1, a surgical contact lens is attached to the eye E and a hole called a port is formed in the side portion. In the present embodiment, an intraocular pressure holding port formed to hold intraocular pressure, an illumination port formed to insert the intraocular illumination probe 10 into the eyeball, and a laser surgical probe 20 A total of three ports are formed, with a surgical port formed to load the eyeball into the eyeball. In this state, the patient is under general anesthesia.
Next, the eyeball illumination device is operated to set the FAG mode. As a result, visible laser light can be output from the first laser diode 36. The surgeon inserts the intraocular illumination probe 10 into the eyeball from the illumination port. At this stage, the visible laser beam is not yet guided to the eye E.

Next, a fluorescein injection solution adjusted under a predetermined condition is intravenously injected into the patient (subject) under a predetermined condition. Fluorescein usually arrives at the central artery of the retina 10 seconds after the start of injection. Thereafter, the visible light as the illumination laser light is output from the integrated light source unit 30 and emitted from the intraocular illumination probe 10 into the eyeball to illuminate the fundus M. The timing for illuminating the fundus M with the illumination laser light may be determined using a timer or the like.
In this state, the medium-visible visible laser beam output from the first laser diode 36 is emitted from the distal end portion of the intraocular illumination probe 10 into the eyeball via the illumination light guide fiber 12. Here, since the diffused light irradiation part 11a integrated with the main-body part 11 is provided in the front-end | tip part of the probe 10 for intraocular illumination, the low output visible laser beam attenuate | damped to the safe level is intraocular. To spread.
Therefore, it is possible to irradiate a wide range of the fundus M with visible laser light, and the output of the visible laser light is attenuated to a sufficient safe level by diffusion by the diffused light irradiation unit 11a. Therefore, it is possible to illuminate the inside of the eyeball while avoiding the damage to the retina itself.
In addition, the visible laser beam output from the first laser diode 36 is not generated from the white light source via the excitation filter as in the prior art, and has a wavelength as the excitation light from the beginning. become. Therefore, it is possible to procure excitation light with a light quantity that can generate sufficient fluorescence, and the surgeon can confirm the fluorescence of fluorescein with the naked eye.

Further, the light source control unit 31 performs irradiation time control so that the irradiation time of the visible laser light output from the first laser diode 36 is 60 seconds or less. Although the retinal phototoxicity is low, it is not preferable to irradiate the fundus M with visible laser light for a long time. However, if the irradiation time is within this time, the influence of the visible laser light on the eye E to be examined This is because the safety can be almost eliminated and the safety can be further improved.
Although an example of use in laser surgery using the laser surgical probe 20 has been described here, the intraocular illumination probe 10 is also used in surgery that does not use laser light, such as vitrectomy using a vitreous cutter. Fluorescence fundus angiography during surgery using the intraocular illumination device is effective.

  A second embodiment of the present invention will be described. For convenience of explanation, the description of the same configuration as that described in the above embodiment is omitted.

As shown in FIG. 3, the specific configuration of the diffused light irradiation unit 11 b is configured such that the tip (outgoing end) of the main body 11 has a conical shape and a plurality of small irregularities are formed on the surface thereof as shown in FIG. 3. ing.
The shape and size of the irregularities are arbitrary.
The main body 11 has a conical shape, and a plurality of small irregularities are provided on the surface thereof, whereby visible laser light emitted from the diffused light irradiation unit 11b becomes diffused light.
Further, the luminous intensity of the emitted laser light is attenuated by the plurality of irregularities formed in the diffused light irradiation unit 11b. For this reason, the wavelength which has retinal phototoxicity can be cut off, and the inside of the eye can be safely illuminated.
The optical fiber has a two-layer structure of a high refractive index layer that transmits light called a core layer and a low refractive index cladding layer that surrounds the core layer and reflects light. The tip of the core layer of the main body 11 is processed into a conical shape by grinding, and the tip is chemically roughened by a surface roughening agent to form a plurality of small irregularities on the surface. As the surface roughening agent, an aqueous solution such as hydrogen fluoride that dissolves quartz glass can be used. Further, a plurality of small irregularities on the surface may be physically formed by a method such as grinding with a diamond grindstone. In the case of grinding with a diamond grindstone, a coarse grindstone with a particle size of # 80 to # 200 may be used, and may be combined with ultrasonic machining.

  A third embodiment of the present invention will be described. For convenience of explanation, the description of the same configuration as that described in the above embodiment is omitted.

As shown in FIG. 4, the specific configuration of the diffused light irradiation unit 11 c includes a first cylinder having a smaller diameter than the main body protruding coaxially from the main body 11 and a smaller diameter than the first cylinder in the third embodiment. And at least a second column, and as a whole, is formed in a stepped shape. In the present embodiment, the first column, the second column, the third column, and the fourth column are provided toward the tip of the main body 11, and the diameter of the column is reduced toward the tip. .
When the main body 11 is formed in a stepped shape as a whole, the visible laser light emitted from the diffused light irradiation unit 11c becomes diffused light. That is, since the diffused light irradiation unit 11c is formed in a stepped shape, the laser light is refracted inside the diffused light irradiation unit 11c, so that the luminous intensity of the laser light emitted from the diffused light irradiation unit 11c is attenuated. For this reason, it becomes possible to block the laser light having a wavelength having retinal phototoxicity.
The optical fiber has a two-layer structure of a high refractive index layer called a core layer that transmits light and a low refractive index grad layer surrounding the core layer and reflecting light. In the present invention, the core portion of the main body 11 is formed in a step shape. The diffused light irradiation portion 11c is formed in a step shape by machining center processing using a diamond tool or grinding processing.

  Embodiment 4 of the present invention will be described. For convenience of explanation, the description of the same configuration as that described in the above embodiment is omitted.

In the fourth embodiment, the specific configuration of the diffused light irradiating unit 11d is provided with a diffusing lens at the tip (outgoing end) of the main body 11 as shown in FIG.
By providing a diffusing lens 11d having a concave central portion at the tip of the intraocular illumination probe 10, the visible laser light emitted from the tip (diffused light irradiation portion 11d) becomes diffuse light.
The method of providing the diffusing lens 11d at the distal end (outgoing end) of the main body 11 is not particularly limited. In general, an optical fiber has a two-layer structure of a high-refractive index layer that transmits light called a core layer and a low-refractive index cladding layer that surrounds the core layer and reflects light. What is necessary is just to apply | coat an adhesive to the part of and attach. Instead of attaching another member, the diffuser lens may be integrally formed by denting the distal end portion of the main body 11.
Further, instead of the diffusing lens, a diffusing film or a diffusing plate in which fine particles that diffuse light are added to the material may be provided.

It is a figure which shows schematic structure of the apparatus for intraocular illumination which concerns on Examples 1-4 of this invention. It is the side view (a) which shows a part of probe for intraocular illumination which concerns on Example 1 of this invention, and A arrow figure (b). It is the side view (a) which shows a part of probe for intraocular illumination which concerns on Example 2 of this invention, and B arrow figure (b). It is the side view (a) which shows a part of probe for intraocular illumination which concerns on Example 3 of this invention, and C arrow figure (b). It is the side view (a) which shows a part of probe for intraocular illumination which concerns on Example 4 of this invention, and D arrow figure (b).

Explanation of symbols

10 Probe for intraocular illumination,
11 Main body,
11a, 11b, 11c, 11d Diffused light irradiation unit,
E eye to be examined,
M Fundus.

Claims (5)

The main body has a cylindrical shape made of quartz glass or plastic that transmits laser light, and the tip of the main body is inserted into the eyeball of the eye to be inspected, and laser light is irradiated through the tip of the main body. In the intraocular illumination probe that illuminates the inside of the eyeball,
An intraocular illumination probe in which a distal end portion of the main body is provided with a diffused light emitting unit that irradiates the diffused light of the laser light with uniform light intensity on the fundus.   The diffused light emitting part is configured by forming the tip part of the main body part into a conical shape or a shell shape, and forming a coating for attenuating the luminous intensity of the emitted light at the tip of the tip part of the main body part. The intraocular illumination probe according to claim 1.   2. The intraocular illumination probe according to claim 1, wherein the diffused light emitting portion is configured by forming a tip portion of the main body portion in a conical shape or a bullet shape, and forming a plurality of irregularities on the surface thereof. .   The diffused light emitting section includes a first cylinder having a smaller diameter than the main body protruding coaxially from the distal end portion of the main body, and a second smaller diameter than the first cylinder protruding coaxially from the distal end of the first cylinder. The probe for intraocular illumination of Claim 1 comprised by forming the front-end | tip part of the said main-body part in the step shape as a whole by having at least this cylinder.   The probe for intraocular illumination according to claim 1, wherein the diffused light emitting portion is formed by forming the main body portion in a cylindrical shape and providing a diffusion lens at a tip of the main body portion.

Images