JPS5995064A - Laser treating apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a laser treatment device that performs treatment by irradiating a nevus with laser light propagated through an optical fiber.

[Technical background of the invention]

Currently, various medical devices using laser light have been proposed, and one example used in the field of plastic surgery is a laser device for removing colored birthmarks such as birthmarks, age spots, and freckles.

Many conventional methods are known for the treatment of birthmarks, such as cell destruction with dry ice, skin grafting, excision, thin scraping, and baking with electric drying, but none of these methods is highly invasive. However, there are disadvantages such as the effectiveness of the treatment is not as good as compared to that of the previous treatment, or the treatment itself causes pain to the patient, requires hospitalization, and the treatment period is long. .

In recent years, with the development and improvement of laser equipment, a method has been proposed that uses a laser beam to burn the affected area with the high energy of the laser beam, and it has been implemented in some cases and its therapeutic effects are becoming recognized. This is the Rede treatment device.

Incidentally, colored abnormal cells such as red birthmarks generally have lower brightness than normal cells, and absorb visible light more strongly than normal cells with higher brightness. Therefore, when these abnormal cells are irradiated with high-energy laser light in the visible light range, the laser light is selectively absorbed by the abnormal cells and converted into thermal energy.

As a result, abnormal cells are strongly burned and destroyed.

On the other hand, normal cells generally have high brightness and therefore absorb little of the laser light. Therefore, heating of normal cells due to absorption of laser light is reduced, and damage to cells due to heat is small.

Therefore, if telangiectasia disease is irradiated with such LED light, the abnormal cells will be selectively burned and red bruises will disappear, but normal cells with relatively high brightness, sweat glands, skin, etc. will receive almost no LED light. Since it does not absorb water, irreversible damage is avoided.
Burns on normal cells and skin surfaces caused by laser light heal rapidly with the formation of minute surgical scars.

As a laser that can be used in the visible light range and is effective for treating the colored nevus, an argon laser with a wavelength of 5200X, a Luhi laser with a wavelength of 4900X, etc. are said to be effective.

Conventionally, in such therapeutic argon laser devices for dermatology, a power device in which a power source and a laser oscillator are housed together is used to pass a laser beam that has been converted into a laser beam through a mechanical shutter through an optical fiber and a light guide path. The radiation is guided to a handpiece for manual operation that is sorbed to the tip of the optical fiber, and is configured to be irradiated onto the affected area from the tip of the handpiece.

During treatment, this device allows the doctor to hold the handpiece in his/her hand.
While checking the affected area with the naked eye, the irradiation position is sequentially moved in steps of about 1/3 increments, and the laser irradiation is performed while turning on and off the laser beam emission using the laser irradiation foot switch of the laser device.

By the way, when a laser beam is irradiated onto an affected area, tissue pieces, charcoal, and cautery pieces may be scattered from the affected area and may adhere to the irradiated end face of the optical fiber in the handpiece.

The deposits on the irradiation end face can be removed by wiping them with alcohol or the like immediately after they are deposited, but if laser irradiation is performed while they are still attached, the deposits will be burned onto the irradiation end face and cannot be removed. In this case, laser absorption may occur due to the deposits, making it impossible to obtain a predetermined output of the laser beam, or the irradiated end face may be overheated by heat due to laser absorption, leading to destruction.

For this reason, conventionally, when deposits were baked onto the irradiation end face of an optical fiber, the irradiation end face had to be repolished, and it was necessary to replace the entire optical fiber for this regrinding.

Therefore, since the running cost increases, the cost is not reflected in the treatment cost, which increases the treatment cost and increases the financial burden on the patient. This is one of the reasons why laser therapy is not popular, even though it is effective for treating plaques.

[Purpose of the invention]

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and it eliminates the need to replace the entire optical fiber even if deposits are burned onto the irradiation end face of the optical fiber, and reduces the running cost of laser treatment while providing sufficient It is an object of the present invention to provide a laser treatment device that can also provide a laser treatment effect.

[Summary of the invention]

That is, in order to achieve the above object, the present invention guides radar light from a laser light source through a light guide made of an optical fiber, and a laser light irradiation device attached to the laser light emitting end side of the light guide. In a laser treatment device that emits a laser beam from the distal end side of the handpiece through a cylindrical handpiece for treatment, the handpiece has a light guide member having a laser beam emitting end surface that faces the laser beam emitting end face of the light guide inside the handpiece. In addition, it is constructed by housing a 6-piece light guide made of the same material as the light guide and having the same cross-sectional dimensions so as to be detachable, and to prevent deposits from directly outside the laser light emitting end surface of the light guide during treatment. A training light body is provided on the output end face side to prevent flying objects, and the training light body is removably housed in the handpiece to prevent the training light body from being contaminated by foreign substances flying from the outside or being damaged by heat. However, by making it possible to replace only this light guide, it is not necessary to replace the entire light guide, and running costs can be reduced.

[Embodiments of the invention]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a side sectional view showing the structure of a handpiece portion of an apparatus according to the present invention, and in the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a light guide for laser light using an optical fiber. 2 is a cylindrical handpiece gripping portion, and 2h is an elongated slide hole provided in the handpiece gripping portion 2 along its axial direction.

The light guide 1 is inserted into the cylindrical handpiece gripping portion 2 from one end thereof.

Reference numeral 3 denotes a training light guide formed of an optical fiber with a short axis length, and one end face of which is disposed in close contact with the laser light emitting end face of the light guide 1, and the laser light guided by the light guide 1 is The light enters the training light body 3 from the output end face and is emitted to the affected area via this.

4A and 4B are ring-shaped sleeves, each of which is adhered to the outer periphery of the light guide 1 at appropriate intervals. Reference numeral 5 denotes a chuck, which has a diameter that allows it to be inserted into the handpiece gripping portion 2, is inserted into the light guide 1 from its laser beam emitting end face side, and is connected to the sleeve 4B at its rear end with a screw 5a. The chuck 5 has its tip side, that is, the end portion 5b on the side of the laser beam emitting end surface of the light guide 1, narrowed into a tapered shape.
Moreover, it is divided into a plurality of parts in the optical axis direction and processed into a plate spring shape, and functions to grip the training light body 3 as described later. A front view of this 5h portion is shown in FIG. That is, as shown in the figure, a cylindrical A iso is cut out in the axial direction, and the remaining piece is processed into a leaf spring shape, which serves as a chuck. Sol 6 is attached to the inside near the tip side of the six pieces of the tip portion 5b in a half-embedded manner, and the laser beam emitting end surface of the light guide 1 is arranged at a position sufficiently retracted from this position. Keep it
By inserting the training light body 3 through the end of the tip 5b on the side of the sole 6, it is connected to the six leaf spring-like pieces. - According to Rule 6,
As will be described later, the training light body 3 can be held with good positional accuracy.

The chuck 5 has a large inner diameter in its middle portion, and is provided with a long hole 5c extending toward the laser beam output side of the light guide 1 at a position opposite to the slide hole 2a.

Reference numeral 7 denotes a chuck opening/closing tool, and the chuck opening/closing tool 7 has a cylindrical shape and is movably provided between the sleeve 4A and the inside of the intermediate portion of the chuck 5 so as to be able to be covered by the light guide 1. be. Further, a bottle 8 is screwed to the chuck opening/closing tool 7, and since the bottle 8 is higher than the slide hole 2a formed in the handpiece gripping part 2, by moving the bottle 8 in the axial direction, the bottle 8 can be opened and closed. , opening/closing 9 - The tip of the tool 7 is configured to be able to push out the tip 5b of the chuck 5. The handpiece gripping tool 2 is connected to the chuck 5 by a screw 2b, and the shape of the slide hole 2a is such that when the bottle 8 is moved, the chuck opening/closing tool 7
It is a matter of course that the tip of the chuck 5 is machined to have an appropriate size to spread out the tip 5b of the chuck 5.

A tapered cylindrical cover 9 is removably inserted into the tip of the handpiece gripping section 2, that is, on the laser beam emitting side. The opening of the cover 9 is machined to have approximately the same dimensions as the laser beam emitting end face of the training light body 3 to prevent various contaminants scattered during laser beam irradiation from entering the inside of the handpiece.

10 is a spring located between the sleeve 4A and the inner flange 7a provided at the rear end of the chuck opening/closing tool 7;
When the bottle 8 is moved, it contracts, but usually due to tension,
The tip 5b of the chuck 5 is pushing the chuck opening/closing tool 7 in the closing direction.

10- The core and cladding of the light guide 1 and the training light guide 3 are made of the same material, and the cross-sectional dimensions in the direction perpendicular to the optical axis are also the same. Magnetic bodies 11 and 12 are provided on the outer periphery of the opposing surfaces so that in the normal mounting state, the opposing end surfaces are in close contact with each other with their optical axes aligned.

The magnetic material 11.12 may be formed by plating a nickel-cobalt magnetic material to a predetermined size (for example, 10 pieces in length and 20 μm in thickness) by electroforming, or by forming a magnetic material into a ring shape with a predetermined size. The light guides 1 and 3 are bonded together and have the same end faces as the end faces of the corresponding light guides 1 and 3, respectively. Then, this magnetic body 1 is placed in the optical axis direction of the light guides 1 and 30.
By magnetizing the magnetic bodies 11 and 12, the two magnetic bodies 11 and 12 are concentrically attracted to each other, and thereby both the light guides 1 and 3 are coaxially brought into close contact with each other.

Further, as shown in FIG. 3, a holder 13 is provided on the intermediate outer periphery (outer periphery of the clad) of the training light body 3.
It is a matter of course that the outer surface of the holder 13, the sleeve 4A, the chuck opening/closing tool 7, and the chuck 5 are formed by processing a material that does not disturb the magnetic field (for example, brass, stainless steel, etc.).

Next, the operation of this device having the above configuration will be described.

This device performs treatment by holding the handpiece gripping part 2 in your hand and irradiating the distal end of the handpiece with a laser beam emitted from the distal end of the handpiece through the light guide 1 and the training light guide 3. Contaminants such as thin liquid, cauterized pieces, and meat pieces scattered from the affected area during treatment enter the hand piece through the opening of the hand piece cover 9 and adhere to the laser beam emitting end face of the training light body 3. Therefore, it becomes necessary to remove this dirt, but since the training light body 3 can be replaced with this device, it will be replaced. To replace the training light body 3, first remove the cover 9 from the tip of the handpiece gripping section 2. Next, the pin 8 pressed against one end surface of the slide hole 8 by the spring 1° is moved to the opposite end surface against the repulsive force of the spring 10, that is, the pin 8 is moved toward the laser beam emission direction. If so, the tip of the chuck opening/closing tool 7 pushes open the tip 5b of the chuck 5, which has a tapered opening diameter, from the inside as shown in FIG. The body 3 is connected only by the attractive force of the magnetic bodies 11 and 12, and can be easily removed by hand.

Next, in order to attach a new training light body 3, keep the chuck 5 in the above state, that is, keep the -n 8 moved.
The new training light guide 3 is inserted so that it is visually coaxial with the light guide 1 with the tip 5b of the light guide 3 open. Light guide 1
A magnetic material 11.12 that is magnetized along the optical axis may be formed by plating or ring bonding at the joint end of the and the training light body 3. including
Since both grooved light bodies 1.3 have the same cross-sectional dimensions at their joining ends, alignment can be achieved with an accuracy of within about ±5 μm due to the self-alignment action of the magnetic material.

Therefore, assuming that optical fibers with a core diameter of 8 ooμm are used for the light guides 1 and 3, and considering that the amount of light propagating through the center of the optical 7 eyer is approximately 10 times the amount of light at the periphery, the light guide The loss at the joint surface between 1. and the training light body 3 can be ignored.

This alignment method that utilizes self-alignment using magnetic material is a safer example than a method that uses highly precise machining. When this is done, the chuck opening/closing tool 7 returns due to the force of the spring 10, thereby closing the tip 5b of the chuck 5, which is processed into a flat spring shape, and the ball 6 fits into the holder 13 of the training light guide 3. , the new training light body 3 is firmly held. After that cover 9
The exchange is completed by covering it.

In this way, only the training light body needs to be damaged by laser treatment, and the training light body can be easily replaced as described above, and the optical axis can be aligned and joined to the light guide. Since it can be worn, treatment can be performed normally without worrying about optical axis misalignment, and the only consumable item is the short minor groove light body, so running costs can be kept low.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described in detail above, the present invention guides laser light from a laser light source through a light guide made of an optical fiber, and a cylindrical handpiece for laser light irradiation work that is attached to the laser light emitting end of the light guide. In a laser treatment device that emits laser light from the distal end side of the handpiece through the laser beam for treatment, the handpiece includes a light guide member that is provided inside the handpiece so as to be close to and face the laser light emitting end surface of the light guide, and to be detachable. A sub-groove light body made of the same material as the light guide and having the same cross-sectional dimensions is accommodated in the light guide, and the short sub-groove is provided to prevent deposits from flying directly onto the laser beam emitting end surface of the light guide from the outside during treatment. The light body is provided on the output end face side, and the minor groove light body is detachably attached to the hand piece.

Even if the sub-groove light body becomes dirty or thermally damaged due to deposits flying in from the outside, it is only necessary to replace it, so there is no need to replace the entire light guide. Thus, it is possible to provide a laser treatment apparatus having such characteristics that running costs can be reduced, and therefore treatment costs can be reduced.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of the entire handpiece showing one embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a view of the chuck seen from the tip, FIG. 3 is a sectional view showing the structure of the minor groove light body, and FIG. The figure is a sectional view showing the state when the chuck at the tip of the handpiece is opened and the replacement fiber is pulled out. 1... Light guide, 2... Handpiece gripping section, 3...
・Minor groove light body, 4A, 4B...Sleeve, 5...Chuck, 6...Zole, 7...Chuck opening/closing tool, 8.
...Pin, 9...Handpiece gripping section cover, 10
...Stripe ring, 11.12...Magnetic material, 13...
・Hall 16- Applicant's agent Patent attorney Takehiko Suzue 17-

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) Laser light is guided from a laser light source through a light guide made of an optical fiber, and passed through a cylindrical handpiece for laser light irradiation work attached to the laser light emitting end side of the light guide. In a laser treatment device that emits laser light from the side for treatment, the hand piece has a light guide disposed inside the handpiece so as to be close to and opposite to the laser light emitting end surface of the light guide and to be removable. A laser treatment device characterized by housing a guiding light body made of the same material as the body and having the same cross-sectional dimensions. (2) The light guide and the training light guide are characterized by being provided with magnetic bodies surrounding the outer peripheries of their opposing surfaces and magnetized so that the magnetic poles of the opposing parts have opposite polarities. A laser treatment device according to claim 1.