JP4421307B2 - Laser therapy device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a laser treatment apparatus that performs treatment by irradiating a treatment site with treatment laser light.

As a laser treatment device used in dermatology or plastic surgery, in order to obtain high-power laser light, each laser light is guided to a fiber from a multi-array type semiconductor laser light source, and each fiber is emitted on the output side. And the laser beam from the bundled bundle fiber is further guided to a fiber on the delivery unit side for irradiating the treatment site with the laser beam via a condensing optical system. (For example, refer to Patent Document 1).
JP 2001-218857 A

  By the way, there are various types of delivery units of the laser treatment apparatus depending on the treatment purpose, and accordingly, the diameter (core diameter) of the fiber on the delivery unit side is different. When only a low-power laser beam is required, the fiber on the delivery unit side may have a small diameter.

  However, as shown in FIG. 5 (a), in order to enter the thin fiber 71 from the thick fiber 70 on the laser light source side, the incident divergence angle θ5 may be increased. There is a limitation that the divergence angle θ5 cannot be increased to about 0.3 or more, and it is difficult to make the incident light from the thick fiber 70 to the thin fiber 71. Further, even if the incident spread angle θ5 is increased and incident on the fiber 71, the output spread angle θ6 emitted from the fiber 71 is also increased, which is not suitable for treatment.

  Further, when the fiber 72 having a different fiber diameter is replaced, there is a problem that the lens 73 that is incident on the fiber 72 must be replaced as shown in FIG.

  For this reason, in the conventional apparatus, the fiber diameter on the delivery side that is practically used is limited, and the laser apparatus main body on which the laser light source is arranged has to be dedicated.

  An object of the present invention is to provide a laser treatment apparatus capable of expanding adaptation to a change in delivery-side fiber diameter in view of the above-described problems of the prior art.

  In order to solve the above problems, the present invention is characterized by having the following configuration.

(1) In a laser treatment apparatus that has a plurality of delivery units that irradiate a treatment site with laser light incident from a delivery-side fiber and that selectively uses the delivery unit , the treatment laser light is emitted. A plurality of laser light source units, a bundle fiber in which fibers are bundled on the emission end side, and a bundle fiber in which a plurality of fibers for guiding laser light from the laser light source unit are arranged substantially concentrically , and the bundle fiber a converging optical system of the laser beam focused on the incident end surface of the delivery side fibers for emitting, by controlling the driving of the plurality of laser light source units, a laser to change the spot diameter at the incident end surface of the delivery side fibers And a light source drive control means .
(2) In the laser treatment apparatus of (1), setting means for setting a laser output to be irradiated to the treatment site, an output sensor for detecting the output of the laser light emitted from the plurality of laser light source units, and the delivery Fiber diameter input / detection means for inputting or detecting the diameter of the side fiber, and the laser light source drive control means selects the plurality of laser light source units based on the diameter of the delivery side fiber input or detected And driving of the selected laser light source unit is controlled so that the output detected by the output sensor becomes the laser output set by the setting means .

  According to the present invention, it is possible to expand adaptation to changes in the delivery-side fiber diameter.

  Hereinafter, the present invention will be described with reference to an embodiment. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an optical system and a control system of a laser treatment apparatus according to the present invention. Reference numeral 1 denotes a laser device main body. A hand piece 20 that is a delivery unit for irradiating a treatment surface with laser light is connected to the main body 1 by a fiber 4. The fiber 4 is connected to the main body 1 by fitting the connector 3 of the fiber 4 and the connector 2 on the main body 1 side. The laser device body 1 includes four semiconductor laser light source units 11, 12, 13, and 14 having a wavelength of 800 nm. This apparatus can drive these four semiconductor laser light source units 11, 12, 13, and 14 independently. Each of the semiconductor laser light source units 11 to 14 is a linear array type semiconductor laser in which a large number of semiconductor laser light sources are connected. Each of the laser light source units 11 to 14 includes a thermistor 11a to 14a for detecting the operating temperature and a photodiode (not shown) for detecting the laser output. The laser light source units 11 to 14 can be cooled not only by cooling the entire package constituting the linear array type semiconductor laser light source, but also by incorporating an electric thermo-cooler that applies the Peltier effect into the package and directly cooling the semiconductor laser light source. good.

  The laser beams emitted from the respective semiconductor laser light sources of the linear array type semiconductor laser are condensed and incident on the incident end faces 51a to 54a of the respective fibers 51 to 54 by the lenses 21 arranged corresponding thereto. The fibers 51 to 54 are bundled at the emission end face 55, and the laser beams emitted from the laser light source units 11 to 14 are collected on the fiber emission side and used for treatment as high-power laser beams. As shown in FIG. 3, the cross section of the emission end face 55 is centered so that the irradiation spots of the beams emitted from the laser light source units 11 to 14 are distributed concentrically on the incident end face of the fiber 4 by the condensing optical system 25 described later. The fiber 51, the fiber 52, the fiber 53, and the fiber 54 are bundled so as to be arranged substantially concentrically toward the outer periphery.

  The aiming light emitted from the aiming light source 15 is collected by the condenser lens 23 and enters the incident end face 24 a of the fiber 24. The exit end face 24b of the fiber 24 is bundled at the center of the exit end face 55 of the fibers 51 to 54, and the aiming light travels in the same optical path as the treatment laser light after exiting the fiber 24. In this embodiment, a red semiconductor laser having a wavelength of 630 nm is used for the aiming light source 15. Reference numeral 16 denotes a laser power source for the aiming light source 15.

  As shown in FIG. 2, laser light (therapeutic laser light and aiming light) emitted from the emission end faces 55 (fiber bundle portions) of the bundled fibers 51 to 54 is collected by a collimator lens 25a and a condenser lens 25b. The light is collected by the optical optical system 25 and enters the fiber 4 on the delivery side. The laser light guided from the fiber 4 to the handpiece 20 is condensed by the condensing lens 19 provided in the handpiece 20 so as to focus on the affected area. Various handpieces suitable for treatment are prepared depending on the treatment purpose, and the handpiece is attached and detached by inserting and removing the connector 2 on the main body 1 side and the connector 3 on the handpiece 20 side.

  As shown in FIG. 1, an output detection optical system 30 is provided between the collimator lens 25a and the condenser lens 25b. Reference numeral 31 denotes an output sensor. A part of the laser light is extracted by the beam splitter 32 and directed to the output sensor 31. On the optical path, a condenser lens 33 and an attenuator 34 for attenuating the laser light intensity are arranged. The laser output signal obtained by the output sensor 31 is compared with a set laser output value, and is monitored so that the set output value can be maintained.

  A safety shutter 37 is inserted into and removed from the optical path of the laser beam by driving the solenoid 38.

  Next, an electric circuit for driving the laser light sources 11 to 14 will be described. As shown in FIG. 1, the laser light source units 11 to 14 are connected in series with the laser power source 7 and are driven at a constant current by the laser power source 7. In order to select the laser light source units 11 to 14 to emit laser light, electronic switches 41 to 44 such as transistors are connected in parallel to the anode (Anode) and the cathode (Cathode) of each laser light source unit 11 to 14. When laser light is emitted from a required laser light source unit, the switch is opened by an instruction from the control unit 10 so that a constant current is supplied from the laser power source 7 to the laser light source unit (each semiconductor laser light source). . In addition, the unnecessary laser light source is closed so that no current flows to the laser light source.

  The operation of the laser treatment apparatus having the above configuration will be described below. The surgeon inputs treatment laser irradiation conditions such as laser output, irradiation time, handpiece type, irradiation spot diameter, delivery side fiber diameter (core diameter), etc., with various switches provided in the control panel 8 in advance. When the irradiation conditions are set, the controller 10 selectively drives the laser light source units 11 to 14 by controlling the opening / closing operations of the electronic switches 41 to 44 based on the input delivery-side fiber diameter. By selectively driving the laser light source units 11 to 14, the laser beam width can be increased or decreased concentrically from the center toward the outer periphery of the fiber 51, the fiber 52, the fiber 53, and the fiber 54 on the emission end face 55, The diameter of the light beam incident on the fiber 4 (condensing spot diameter) can be increased or decreased in stages. For example, in order to change the fiber 4 to a fiber 61 having a small fiber diameter and make it incident on the fiber 61, as shown in FIG. 3, only the laser light source unit 11 corresponding to the fiber 51 arranged in the center on the emission end face 55 is used. Drive. Thereby, the condensing spot diameter at the incident end surface is reduced by the condensing optical system 25, and the laser beam can be incident on even a thin fiber such as the fiber 61 without waste.

  As shown in FIG. 4, when the arrangement of the fibers 51 to 54 on the emission end face 55 is random as in the prior art, the laser beam cannot be efficiently transmitted to the fiber 61 having a small fiber diameter. For example, the light beam emitted from the region surrounded by the circle C on the emission end face 55 enters the fiber 61 having a thin fiber diameter, but the light ray emitted from the outside of the circle C on the emission end face 55 does not enter the fiber 61. .

  As shown in FIG. 2, the laser beams emitted from the fibers 51, 52, 53, and 54 all have the same emission divergence angle, and the incident divergence angles incident on the delivery-side fibers are all the same. For this reason, when considering the light flux emitted from the fiber 51 by the laser beam 51, the divergence angle of the light flux emission is the divergence angle θ1, and the incident divergence angle is the divergence angle θ2. Considering the case of light fluxes emitted from all the fibers 51, 52, 53, 54, in this case as well, the divergence angle of emission of the light flux is the divergence angle θ1, and the incident spread angle is the divergence angle θ2. For this reason, since the arrangement of the fibers 51 to 54 on the emission end face 55 is directly projected onto the incident surface on the delivery side fiber, it is easy to control the laser light source units 11 to 14 with respect to changes in the diameter of the delivery side fiber. is there.

  As in the present embodiment, the arrangement of the fibers 51 to 54 on the emission end face 55 shown in FIG. 3 is bundled approximately concentrically from the center toward the fibers 51, 52, 53, and 54 toward the outer periphery. The laser light source units 11 to 14 to be driven are selected in accordance with the delivery-side fiber diameter, thereby changing the size of the diameter of the light beam incident on the delivery-side fiber and causing the laser light to enter the delivery-side fiber. be able to. This is particularly effective when the fiber diameter on the delivery side varies depending on the purpose of treatment.

  For example, when the fiber on the delivery side is replaced with a thin fiber 61 from a thick fiber (a thin fiber is used in a delivery unit for treatment that does not require a high-power laser), the diameter information of the fiber 61 is obtained. Input with the switch of the control panel 8. Alternatively, it may be automatically detected when the fiber 61 is attached to the connector 2. For example, a barcode representing the fiber diameter is printed on the end face of the fiber 61, a barcode reader is provided on the apparatus body 1, the barcode of the fiber 61 is read by the barcode reader, and the fiber diameter is input. Also good. The control unit 10 closes the electronic switches 42, 43, 44 based on the input or detected fiber diameter information of the fiber 61, and emits laser light only from the laser light source unit 11. The laser light emitted from the laser light source unit 11 passes through the fiber 51, is emitted as a thin laser beam like the end face shape of the fiber 51 at the emission end surface 55 shown in FIG. 3, and enters the fiber 61 as a thin laser beam. Therefore, laser light can be incident without leaking from the fiber 61. If the laser light source to be driven is added to the laser light source 52, the laser light source 53, and the laser light source 54 as the delivery-side fiber becomes thicker, higher-power laser light can be guided to the delivery side.

  In addition, as a means for selecting a laser light source in accordance with a delivery-side fiber diameter attached to the main body 1 side, a configuration in which a selection switch provided on the control panel 8 is used may be used.

  After the setting of the irradiation conditions is completed, when the operator presses a switch from standby in standby state to ready for irradiation on the control panel 8, the selected semiconductor laser light source unit 11 with the safety shutter 37 closed. Laser light is emitted as a test from ˜14. The control unit 10 compares the laser output obtained by the output sensor 31 with the set laser output value, adjusts the drive current from the laser power source 7 so as to become the set value, and then opens the safety shutter 37. Of course, when an abnormal laser output is detected, the safety shutter 37 is not opened, and the operator is informed by a sound such as a display window (not shown) on the control panel 8 and a beep sound. In addition, even when there is an abnormality during laser irradiation, the control unit 10 immediately closes the safety shutter 37, stops the laser light irradiation, and notifies the operator with a display window and sound on the control panel 8.

  After completing the setting, the surgeon holds the handpiece 20 with his / her hand and brings it into contact with the affected area. Then, aiming is performed on the affected part to be irradiated with laser with aiming light emitted from the aiming light source 15. When the aiming is completed, the foot switch 9 is stepped on to send a laser irradiation trigger signal to the control unit 10. The control unit 10 controls the opening / closing operation of the electronic switches 41 to 44 based on the delivery-side fiber diameter input from the control panel 8, and the laser light is emitted from the selected laser light sources 11 to 14. The laser light emitted from the selected laser light sources 11 to 14 passes through the fibers 51 to 54, is condensed by the collimator lens 25 a and the condenser lens 25 b, and enters the fiber 4. The laser light that has passed through the fiber 4 is guided to the handpiece 20 and irradiated to the affected part by the condenser lens 19.

  In the present embodiment, the wavelength of the semiconductor laser light source units 11 to 14 is set to 800 nm. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and a semiconductor laser light source in a manufacturable wavelength range may be used depending on the purpose of treatment. In addition, as described above, it is preferable to use a laser light source that is unitized in an array shape, so that compactness is achieved. However, a method in which individual laser light sources are individually driven and controlled may be used.

It is a block diagram which shows the optical system and control system of an apparatus. It is a figure which shows the light beam which radiate | emits from a fiber and injects into a delivery side fiber. It is a figure which shows arrangement | positioning of the fiber in an output end surface. It is a figure which shows arrangement | positioning of the fiber in an output end surface. It is a figure which shows the light beam which radiate | emits from a fiber and injects into a delivery side fiber.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Laser apparatus main body 4 Fiber 8 Control panel 10 Control part 11 Semiconductor laser light source 12 Semiconductor laser light source 13 Semiconductor laser light source 14 Semiconductor laser light source 15 Aiming light source 20 Handpiece 24 Fiber 25 Condensing optical system 25a Collimator lens 25b Condensing lens 41 Electron Switch 42 Electronic switch 43 Electronic switch 44 Electronic switch 51 Fiber 52 Fiber 53 Fiber 54 Fiber

Claims (2)

In a laser treatment apparatus that has a plurality of delivery units that irradiate a treatment site with laser light incident from a delivery-side fiber by an irradiation optical system, and that uses a delivery unit to selectively treat, a plurality of units that emit treatment laser light A laser light source unit, a bundle fiber in which fibers are bundled on the emission end side, a bundle fiber in which a plurality of fibers for guiding laser light from the laser light source unit are arranged substantially concentrically , and the bundle fiber is emitted A condensing optical system for condensing laser light on the incident end face of the delivery side fiber, and a laser light source drive control for changing the spot diameter at the incident end face of the delivery side fiber by controlling driving of the plurality of laser light source units laser treatment apparatus characterized by comprising: means, a. 2. The laser treatment apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein setting means for setting a laser output to irradiate a treatment site, an output sensor for detecting the output of laser light emitted from the plurality of laser light source units, and the delivery side fiber Fiber diameter input / detection means for inputting or detecting the diameter, and the laser light source drive control means selectively drives the plurality of laser light source units based on the diameters of the delivery-side fibers input or detected. And controlling the drive of the selected laser light source unit so that the output detected by the output sensor becomes the laser output set by the setting means .

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