JPH0525494B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a laser surgical device that is inserted into an insertion channel of an endoscope and performs laser treatment.

2. Description of the Related Art There is a known endoscope that performs treatment inside a body cavity by inserting a laser probe into an insertion channel for inserting forceps provided in an endoscope. Such a laser probe is capable of emitting guide light to confirm the irradiation position of surgical laser light. However, the laser probe is long and thin, and its tip will wobble when it is pulled out of the endoscope, so if you accidentally pull the probe out of the endoscope while still emitting the guide light, you will not know where the guide light will be directed. When using such a laser surgical device, the smaller the amount of light, the safer the guide light will be when it enters the eye. On the other hand, considering the ease of confirming the irradiation position, the amount of light should be as large as possible. Therefore, in order to harmonize these, it is desirable to increase the light amount of the guide light to the limit of the safe limit (maximum safe light amount).

However, in conventional laser surgery devices, a guide generator with an output corresponding to the variation in the light intensity during guide light is selected in consideration of the variation in light intensity during guide light guide, but the decrease in light intensity during light guide is accurately grasped. Therefore, it was impossible to make accurate settings, and as a result, the amount of guide light was set to be quite low.
Moreover, as the laser oscillator for guiding light deteriorates over time, it becomes even darker, making it difficult to confirm the irradiation position.

The present invention has been made focusing on the above circumstances,
The purpose is to provide a laser surgical device that is safe and allows easy confirmation of the irradiation position by accurately and easily adjusting the amount of guide light.

Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described based on the drawings.

Reference numeral 1 in FIG. 1 is an endoscope, and this endoscope 1 is provided with an insertion channel 3 through which a laser probe 2 for laser surgery is inserted. The laser probe 2 has a laser guide 4 inserted therein, and a connector 5 is provided at the base end of the laser probe 2. This connector 5 can be detachably attached to a connector receiver 7 of a laser probe attaching portion of a laser surgical device 6, which will be described later. Further, within the main body 8 of the laser surgical device 6, a surgical laser oscillator 9 is disposed inside the connector receiver 7.

This laser oscillator 9 is constructed as shown in FIG. That is, on the axial extension of the resonant optical path of the YAG rod 11, resonant mirrors 12 and 13 are installed facing each end face of the YAG rod 11, respectively. The resonant mirror 12 on the output side slightly transmits surgical YAG laser light;
The resonant mirror 13 on the non-emission side reflects all of the YAG laser light. In addition, an excitation lamp 14 is installed on the side of the YAG rod 11, and by lighting this lamp 14,
It is designed to excite the YAG rod 11.
Furthermore, a selectively retractable beam shutter 15 is installed on the resonant optical path located between the output side end of the YAG rod 11 and the resonant mirror 12, and is normally located on the resonant optical path to oscillate. This blocks the light that is generated and stops the oscillation operation. Then, as described later, the foot switch 16
By operating the beam shutter 1
5 is removed from the resonant optical path, the YAG rod 11 is excited by the lamp 14, so it resonates between the resonant mirrors 12 and 13, and the resonant mirror 13
The laser beam is emitted from the side. Note that both of these resonant mirrors 12 and 13 are formed so that guide light, which will be described later, is transmitted therethrough.
By the way, this beam shutter 15 is moved by a switching operation mechanism (not shown). Further, a condenser lens 17 is installed on the optical path on the output side of the laser oscillator 9 to condense the emitted laser light and a guide light to be described later and make it enter the laser guide 4 of the laser probe 2. Further, a mirror 1 is provided between the output end of the laser oscillator 9 and the condenser lens 17 to reflect the guide light to the side of the optical path.
8 is installed, and when detecting the light amount of the guide light, it enters the optical path and reflects the guide light toward a light amount measuring device 19 installed on the side of the optical path.

Furthermore, within the main body 8 of the laser surgical device 6, a guide light generator 22 is installed which generates a guide light made of visible light and having linear polarization properties.
For example, a He--Ne laser oscillator is used as the guide light generator 22. Then, the guide light consisting of this He-Ne laser light is reflected by the reflecting mirrors 23 and 24.
The light is guided into the laser oscillator 9 coaxially with the YAG rod 11 through a light guide optical system 25 using a light guide system 25, etc. This light guiding optical system 25
A chopper 26 and a guide light shutter 27 are installed in the middle of the optical path.

Further, a light amount adjuster 28 as an optical attenuator is installed between the reflecting mirrors 23 and 24 and in the middle of the optical path of the light optical system 25 to arbitrarily adjust the amount of light passing through the guide light. This light amount adjuster 28
is constructed as shown in FIG. That is, a holding cylinder 30 is detachably attached to the support body 29, and a filter holding ring 31 is rotatably fitted to the non-attached end of the holding cylinder 30. Further, a V-groove 32 is formed around the entire circumference of the fitting end circumferential surface of the filter holding ring 31, and a fastener 33 screwed into the non-attached end of the holding cylinder 30 is inserted into this V-groove 32. conical tip 3
4 is adapted to engage. Thus, the filter holding ring 31 can be rotated about the optical axis of the light guiding optical system 25 and can be fixed in that position by the fastener 33. A disc-shaped polarizing filter 35 is attached to the filter holding ring 31 as an optical member that can adjust the amount of transmitted light. The polarizing filter 35 can rotate together with the filter holding ring 31 about the optical axis. The exposed outer peripheral portion of the filter holding ring 31 is knurled to form a knob portion 36.

Next, the operation of the laser surgical device 6 will be explained.

First, the laser probe 2 is guided into the body cavity through the insertion channel 3 of the endoscope 1. Then, the connector 5 of this laser probe 2 is attached to the connector receiver 7. Therefore, the foot switch 16
By stepping on the button, the guide light shutter 27 and the beam shutter 15 open. Guide light generator 22
The guide light emitted from the YAG rod 11 and chopped by the chopper 26 enters the laser oscillator 9 through the light guiding optical system 25 coaxially with the YAG rod 11.
Then, the resonant mirror 13 on the non-emission side and the YAG
The light passes through the rod 11, and further passes through the resonant mirror 12 on the emission side and is emitted. In this way, the guide light coaxially passes through the laser oscillator 9 and enters the laser guide 4 of the laser probe 2 through the condenser lens 17. At the same time, the beam shutter 15 retreats from the resonant optical path, causing the laser oscillator 9 to operate in oscillation and emit laser light. This emitted laser light is condensed together with the guide light through the condensing lens 17, and enters the laser guide 4 of the laser probe 2. The laser light incident on the laser guide 4 can be guided to a target site within the body cavity and irradiated to treat the target site. That is, during the laser beam irradiation, the guide light is irradiated and the target area can be confirmed.

By the way, it is desirable to use the guide light at the maximum safe light amount. Therefore, when setting this, the upper cover of the main body 8 of the laser surgical device 6 is opened, and the light amount measuring device 19 is installed on the side of the output optical path of the laser oscillator 9. Normally, there is no need to take the trouble to remove, for example, the part where the laser probe 2 is attached. Then, by inserting a mirror 18 on the optical path, the emitted guide light is reflected toward the light amount measuring device 19. Thereby, the amount of the guide light at the time it passes through the laser oscillator 9 is measured. That is, the amount of light transmitted through the light guide optical system 25 and the laser oscillator 9 is measured. Then, the light amount adjuster 28 is adjusted so that the measured light amount becomes the maximum safe light amount. That is, the direction of the polarizing filter 35 is changed by rotating the filter holding ring 31 with respect to the fixed holding cylinder 30. Since the guide light has linear polarization, the amount of transmitted light changes depending on the amount of rotation of the polarizing filter 35, and the amount of transmitted light can be adjusted.
Therefore, while looking at the display measured by the light amount measuring device 19, the light amount adjuster 28 is adjusted so that this becomes the maximum safe light amount.

Note that the present invention can also be applied to a case where the guide light does not pass through the surgical laser oscillator 9. Further, the amount of transmitted light may be changed by using a plurality of polarizing plates as the light amount adjuster 28 and changing their mutual rotation angles.

As explained above, according to the present invention, even if the output of the guide light generator or the transmittance of the guide light of the light guide optical system through which the guide light passes varies,
The light amount of the guide light at the final end can be adjusted accurately. Therefore, the amount of light emitted from the guide light can be easily set to the maximum safe amount of light. Therefore, it is safe for the operator's eyes, and the irradiation position of the laser beam can be confirmed at the maximum safe light intensity that is easiest to confirm. Further, the output of the guide light generator generally deteriorates over time, but if the output of the guide light generator is used with sufficient margin at the beginning of use, it is possible to maintain the desired maximum safe light amount over a long period of time by periodically adjusting the output. Further, the above adjustment can be easily performed without modifying the guide light generator.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawings show one embodiment of the present invention, in which Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a laser surgical device, Fig. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram showing the configuration of its main parts, and Fig. 3 is a diagram showing the adjustment of the light amount of the guide light. It is a side sectional view of a container. 6... Laser surgical device, 9... Laser oscillator, 22
...Guide light generator, 25...Light guide optical system, 28...Light amount adjuster.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A surgical laser oscillator that oscillates and emits a surgical laser beam, and a laser that can be inserted into and removed from an insertion channel provided in an endoscope and that guides the laser beam from the surgical laser oscillator to the target site. A probe, a guide light laser oscillator that generates a visible guide light, a light guide optical system that guides the guide light emitted by the guide light laser oscillator to the output axis of the laser oscillator, and a light guide optical system that guides the guide light emitted by the guide light laser oscillator to the output axis of the laser oscillator. A laser surgical device comprising: a light amount attenuator installed in the optical path to attenuate the guide light and arbitrarily adjust the amount of attenuation to adjust the amount of light passing through the device.