JP2004089397A - Laser therapy equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide equipment capable of emitting laser with uniform laser intensity. <P>SOLUTION: This laser therapy equipment for irradiating an affected part with therapy laser beams for laser therapy is provided with a light guiding optical system for forming the laser beams from a therapy laser light source to be in the form of spots for guide and irradiation to the affected part; a spot form conversion means arranged at the light guiding optical system for making the shape of the spots all hexagonal; and a scanning means arranged at the light guiding optical system for scanning the spot position of the spots. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a laser treatment apparatus that performs treatment by irradiating a treatment laser beam to an affected part.
[0002]
[Prior art]
2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a laser treatment apparatus that irradiates a skin with laser light to perform hair removal, wrinkle removal, bruise removal, and the like is known. For example, in the laser hair removal treatment, the hair energy is radiated to the hair root by irradiating a laser beam around the hair root and the hair root is cauterized to perform hair removal. Hair removal treatments that take place one at a time take time and are inefficient. Therefore, an area to be irradiated at once is set in advance, and scanning (scanning) is performed by using two driving mirrors or the like so that a beam spot (spot position) of the laser beam is arranged in the irradiated area. The entire set irradiation range is illuminated without loss so that hair removal can be performed efficiently.
[0003]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, in the conventional scanning of a circular spot, when the circles are tangent to each other, a gap is formed between the circles, and the portion becomes an unirradiated portion, and a portion having no therapeutic effect is formed. In addition, if a circular spot is overlapped and illuminated around the circle in an attempt to eliminate the unirradiated portion, the adjacent overlapping portions will be double-irradiated and over-irradiated, resulting in thermal damage to the skin (thermal damage). There is a problem that is easy to occur.
[0004]
An object of the present invention is to provide a device capable of uniformly irradiating laser intensity in view of the above-mentioned drawbacks of the conventional device.
[0005]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to solve the above problems, the present invention is characterized by having the following configuration.
(1) In a laser treatment apparatus for irradiating a treatment laser beam to an affected part to perform laser treatment, a light guiding optical system for forming a laser beam from the treatment laser light source into a spot shape and irradiating the affected part with light. A spot shape conversion unit arranged in the light guide optical system to make the shape of the spot hexagonal; and a scanning unit arranged in the light guide optical system to scan the spot position of the spot. And
(2) In the laser treatment apparatus of (1), the spot shape conversion means is a kaleidoscope having a hexagonal cross section.
(3) In the laser treatment apparatus according to (1), the scanning means scans the spot position so that adjacent hexagonal sides of the hexagonal spot overlap each other.
(4) In the laser treatment apparatus according to (1), the spot shape conversion means converts the hexagonal spot into a hexagonal spot in which all opposing sides are parallel and the opposing sides are equal in length. And
[0006]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic external view of a laser treatment apparatus used for hair removal treatment and the like, and FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of an optical system and a control system.
A large LCD panel 2 is provided on the front of the laser device main body 1. Various setting conditions are displayed on the LCD panel 2, and various settings are made by touching operation keys displayed on the LCD panel 2. It is a touch panel that can be used. A communication cable 3 and a fiber cable 4 for guiding the laser light extend from an upper portion of the laser device main body 1 to a handpiece 20 for irradiating the laser light.
[0007]
Reference numeral 5 denotes a chiller for cooling and circulating the cooling water supplied to the handpiece 20 side. The two cooling tubes 7 extending from the chiller 5 are bundled with the communication cable 3 and the fiber cable 4 described above, and are integrated into a centralized cable 8. Reference numeral 9 denotes a foot switch that triggers laser irradiation.
[0008]
In FIG. 2, reference numeral 10 denotes a laser light source unit that emits pulsed therapeutic laser light, and the laser light source unit 10 has a large number of semiconductor lasers. The laser light emitted from each semiconductor laser is condensed and incident on the end face of each fiber 13a by a lens 12a arranged correspondingly. The fibers 13a are bundled on the emission end face side, and the laser lights emitted from the respective semiconductor lasers are collected on the fiber emission side, and are used for treatment as high-output laser light. In this embodiment, near-infrared light having a wavelength of 800 to 820 nm is used as the treatment laser light.
[0009]
The aiming light emitted from the aiming (sighting) light source 11 is condensed by the condenser lens 12b and is incident on the fiber 13b. The emission-side end face of the fiber 13b is bundled together with the emission-side end face of the fiber 13a, and the aiming light travels on the same optical path as the treatment laser light after exiting the fiber 13b. In this embodiment, red visible light having a wavelength of 620 to 650 nm is used for the aiming light beam.
[0010]
The laser light (therapeutic laser light and the aiming light) emitted from the emission end faces of the bundled fibers 13a and 13b is condensed by the condenser lens group 14 and enters the fiber cable 4. The fiber cable 4 is connected to the handpiece 20, and the laser light is guided to the handpiece 20. In addition, a shutter 17 for blocking laser light is inserted as needed into an optical path between the emission end faces of the fibers 13a and 13b and the condenser lens group 14. The shutter 17 is driven by a driving unit 18.
[0011]
FIG. 3 is an enlarged view illustrating the configuration of the handpiece 20. The optical system of the handpiece 20 includes a condenser lens 33 for condensing laser light emitted from the fiber cable 4, a kaleidoscope 32, a collimator lens 22, a mirror 21, a first mirror 23, a second mirror 24, and a condenser lens. Consists of 25.
[0012]
The kaleidoscope 32 is for converting the spot shape and is composed of six strip-shaped reflecting mirrors (having a hexagonal cross section). Since the exit end face of the kaleidoscope 32 and the irradiation surface to the affected part (the lower surface of the first window 42 described later) are conjugate with each other, the hexagonal shape of the kaleidoscope 32 becomes the spot shape of the laser. Further, since the incident beam repeats multiple reflections in the tube of the kaleidoscope 32, the mode of the beam is made uniform.
[0013]
The first mirror 23 and the second mirror 24 are provided with a first galvanometer 23a and a second galvanometer 24a for rotating the respective mirrors. By driving and rotating the first mirror 23 and the second mirror 24, the irradiation position of the laser beam is moved (oscillated) in each of the XY directions, and the therapeutic laser beam can be scanned over a wide range. it can.
[0014]
A scanner support 26 is fixed below the scanner head 20a, and a window mounting plate 27 made of aluminum having good heat conductivity is screwed to the scanner support 26 from the side surface (perpendicular direction in FIG. 3). ing. 28 is a Peltier element which is an electronic heat exchanger. The Peltier element 28 is mounted so as to be sandwiched between an aluminum cooling plate 29 and a window mounting plate 27 such that the window mounting plate 27 side is a heat absorbing side (cooling side) and the cooling plate 29 side is a heat radiating side. Current is applied. A flow path through which cooling water circulates is formed inside the cooling plate 29, and the cooling water cooled by the chiller 5 circulates through the cooling plate 29 through the cooling tube 7, and is peltiered through the cooling plate 29. The heat radiated by the element 28 is absorbed.
[0015]
Reference numeral 31 denotes a temperature sensor mounted on the lower end of the window mounting plate 27. The temperature sensor 31 detects the temperature of the window mounting plate 27, and the controller 15 controls the temperature of the Peltier element 28 based on the detected temperature.
[0016]
The window unit 40 is mounted on the window mounting plate 27. At the time of laser irradiation, the contact surface of each window is used in contact with the skin surface. The window unit 40 has a double structure of a first window 42 made of transparent sapphire glass having good thermal conductivity in contact with the skin, and a second window 44 made of transparent glass having lower thermal conductivity than the first window 42. The shape is held by a substantially L-shaped window frame 41. With this structure, the heat of the first window 42 is transmitted to the window frame 41, the window mounting plate 27, and the Peltier element 28, and the heat is absorbed. By lowering the temperature of the first window 42, the patient's skin can be cooled. Since the laser beam emitted from the scanner head 20a is focused at the focal length of the focusing lens 25, the length of the frame 41 in the vertical direction is designed so that the lower surface of the first window 42 is located at this focusing position. . The window unit 40 is detachably attached to the window attachment plate 27 by two screws 32.
[0017]
The control unit 15 shown in FIG. 2 is connected to the LCD panel 2, the chiller 5, the flow switch 6 for checking whether the cooling water from the chiller 5 is normally circulating, the memory 16, and the foot switch 9. The temperature sensor 31, the Peltier element 28, the first galvanometer 23a, and the second galvanometer 24a on the handpiece 20 side are connected to the control unit 15 via the communication cable 3.
[0018]
The operation at the time of laser irradiation in the laser treatment apparatus having the above configuration will be described below.
The surgeon operates the setting keys displayed on the LCD panel 2 to set irradiation conditions such as laser output, pulse irradiation time, and scanning pattern shape. The scanning pattern shape can be selected from those stored in the memory 16 in advance, and a circular pattern, a square pattern, a rectangular pattern, a line pattern, and the like are prepared.
[0019]
At the time of laser irradiation, a cooling mechanism is operated by a switch (not shown). By driving the Peltier device 28 and the chiller 5, the first window 42 is cooled, and the affected part in contact with the first window 42 is cooled.
After preparing for the apparatus main body 1 side, the surgeon holds the handpiece 20 by hand and brings the first window 42 into contact with the affected part. Aiming light from the light source 11 is emitted from the scan head 20a, and the aiming light is repeatedly scanned by driving the first mirror 23 and the second mirror 24 according to the selected scanning pattern shape. The surgeon adjusts the contact position of the first window 42 so as to match the target affected part while checking the affected part observed through the windows 42 and 44 and the irradiation position of the aiming light.
[0020]
When the operator completes the setting of the position of the irradiation part and the setting of the laser output by observing the aiming light, the operator presses a switch (not shown) on the LCD panel 2 to put the apparatus in a READY state. When the trigger signal from the foot switch 9 is input to the control unit 15, the control unit 15 drives and controls the first galvanometer 23a and the second galvanometer 24a, scans the laser light from the laser light source unit 10, and selects the laser beam. A laser beam is applied to the treatment site in the scanned area.
[0021]
Laser light that has entered the scanner head 20a from the fiber cable 4 is condensed by the condenser lens 33 and is incident on the kaleidoscope 32. The laser light emitted from the kaleidoscope 32 is converted into a parallel light beam by the collimator lens 22. After that, the optical axis is bent by the mirror 21, scanning is performed in the X and Y directions by the first mirror 23 and the second mirror 24, and the light is condensed by the condenser lens 25 so that a hexagonal spot is focused at the affected part. As shown in FIG. 4, the control unit 15 scans the spot positions so that one side of an adjacent hexagon overlaps.
[0022]
When the circular spot of the circular spot is scanned so as to be tangent, a gap A is formed between the circles as shown in FIG. 5A, and the portion becomes an unirradiated portion and a portion having no therapeutic effect is formed. When the circular spot is overlapped and irradiated at the periphery of the circle in an attempt to eliminate the unirradiated portion, the adjacent overlapping portion B is over-irradiated as double irradiation as shown in FIG. As a result, thermal damage to the skin (thermal damage) was likely to occur. In the present invention, since the spot shape is hexagonal as shown in FIG. 5C, there is no unirradiated portion and there is no double irradiated portion. Therefore, irradiation can be performed with a uniform laser intensity. In addition, since the laser light passes through the kaleidoscope 32, multiple reflections are repeated in the tube, so that the beam mode is made uniform. Therefore, even if the beam mode has a strong intensity at the center of the spot like a Gaussian distribution, the beam mode becomes rectangular by passing through the kaleidoscope 32, and the laser intensity can be made uniform. .
[0023]
When a hexagonal spot is scanned in a circular shape, a large number of circular patterns can be set stepwise as shown in FIGS. In FIG. 7B, as compared with FIG. 7A, a circular pattern that is slightly larger can be formed by adding 12 hexagonal spots H1 in oblique lines. Similarly, in FIG. 7C, a circular pattern one size larger than that in FIG. 7B can be formed by adding 12 hatched hexagonal spots H2. Similarly, in FIGS. 7D to 7H, a large number of circular patterns each having a size one size larger can be formed stepwise by adding H7 hexagonal spots H3 to H7 in oblique lines. When a hexagonal spot is scanned in a circular shape, a large number of circular patterns can be set in a step closer to a circular shape than in a square spot.
[0024]
In the above embodiment, the spot shape is a regular hexagon as shown in FIG. 4 (the length of all sides is La). However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the hexagonal shape of the spot is as shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 6, all the opposite sides of the hexagon are parallel, and one of the opposite sides is set to Lb (the other two opposite sides are La), or as shown in FIG. All the sides may be parallel, and the opposite two sides may be Lc and Ld, and may be a hexagon (the other opposite side is La). Here, the opposing side means a set of one side and three sides away from the side. In other words, the hexagonal shape of the spot is such that all opposing sides of the hexagon are parallel and the length of the opposing sides is the same as the hexagons shown in FIGS. 4, 6A and 6B. It is sufficient if the hexagons are equal.
[0025]
In the above description, a laser treatment apparatus used for hair loss treatment and the like has been described as an example. The present invention can also be applied to a laser treatment apparatus or the like that scans a spot of a laser beam by using the above method.
[0026]
In order to treat acne scars with a laser treatment apparatus using a CO2 laser, it is preferable to scan a spot in a donut shape as shown in FIG. If the spot is a hexagonal spot compared to a square spot, the size of the opening is gradually changed to a more circular shape as shown in FIGS. 8A to 8G according to the size of the acne scar. Can be set to many.
[0027]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the present invention, the laser intensity can be uniformly irradiated, and a laser treatment with a good therapeutic effect without unirradiated or over-irradiated portions can be performed.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a schematic external view of a laser treatment apparatus used for hair removal treatment and the like.
FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a main configuration of an optical system and a control system.
FIG. 3 is an enlarged view illustrating a configuration of a lower portion of the handpiece.
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a hexagonal spot shape to be scanned.
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a spot shape to be scanned.
FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a hexagonal spot shape to be scanned.
FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a circular pattern scanned with hexagonal spots.
FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a donut-shaped pattern scanned by a hexagonal spot.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Laser apparatus main body 4 Fiber cable 10 Laser light source unit 15 Control unit 20 Handpiece 22 Collimator lens 23 First mirror 23a First galvanometer 24 Second mirror 24a Second galvanometer 25 Condensing lens 32 Callidescope 33 Condensing lens

Claims (4)

A laser treatment apparatus for irradiating a treatment laser beam to an affected part to perform laser treatment, comprising: a light guide optical system for forming a laser beam from the treatment laser light source in a spot shape and irradiating the affected part with light; A laser, comprising: a spot shape conversion unit arranged in an optical system to make the shape of the spot hexagonal; and a scanning unit arranged in the light guide optical system to scan the spot position of the spot. Treatment device. 2. The laser treatment apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said spot shape conversion means is a kaleidoscope having a hexagonal cross section. 2. A laser treatment apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said scanning means scans the spot position such that adjacent sides of the hexagonal spot of the hexagonal spot overlap each other. 2. The laser treatment apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said spot shape converting means converts the hexagonal spot into a hexagonal spot in which all opposing sides are parallel and the lengths of the opposing sides are equal. Treatment device.

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