JPS644784B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a laser surgical device in which a guide light coaxially passes through a surgical laser oscillator.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a laser surgical apparatus, visible guide light is emitted coaxially with the output optical axis of surgical laser light to confirm the irradiation position of surgical laser light. The emission directions of the visible guide light and the surgical laser beam must be coaxially aligned, and there are two ways to achieve this alignment: a method in which the guide light is aligned with the guide light on the output optical path of a surgical laser oscillator; There is a method in which the light passes coaxially through the laser oscillator. In the former method, it is actually difficult to accurately match the surgical laser beam and the visible guide light, and errors are likely to occur. Moreover, it is necessary to provide an optical member for matching the optical axes on the output side, which is a problem. On the other hand, the latter method is superior in that the surgical laser beam and the visible guide light precisely match, and there is no need to provide an optical member for optical axis alignment on the output side of the surgical laser oscillator. .

However, in the latter method, the guide light must pass through the inside of a surgical laser oscillator, so unless the laser oscillator is in oscillation mode, the guide light will be blocked by the beam shutter and cannot pass through. In other words, in this latter method, it is not possible to irradiate only the guide light in advance, and irradiation can only be performed after the surgical laser beam is emitted. For this reason, there is a drawback in use that it is not possible to confirm in advance the area irradiated with the laser beam.
In addition, in the latter method, there is a beam shutter that uses a wavelength-selective transmitting material that allows the guide light to pass through but not the surgical laser light. With this method, there is a problem that the guide light is always irradiated and becomes blurry and difficult to see during endoscopic observation.

The present invention has been made focusing on the above circumstances,
The purpose of this is to enable endoscopic observation by selectively turning on and off the guide light in a laser surgical device in which the visible guide light passes coaxially through a surgical laser oscillator. The goal is to avoid getting overwhelmed at times.

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, a surgical laser oscillator 9 is installed inside the main body 8 of the laser surgical device 6 and located 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
When the YAG rod 11 is excited by the lamp 14, resonance occurs between the resonance mirrors 12 and 13, and laser light is emitted from the resonance mirror 13 side. In addition,
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 and operated by a switching operation mechanism 17 as shown in FIG. That is, this switching operation mechanism 17 is operated by a lever 1 rotated by a rotary solenoid 18.
The beam shutter 15 is attached to the tip of the beam shutter 9, and when the rotary solenoid 18 is excited by operating the aforementioned foot switch 16, the lever 19 rotates and the beam shutter 15 is retracted from the resonant optical path. In addition,
Reference numeral 20 in FIG. 3 is a beam passage hole, which is normally closed by the beam shutter 15.
When operating the oscillation, the beam shutter 15
evacuates and opens. Further, a condenser lens 21 is provided on the output side of the laser oscillator 9 to condense the emitted laser light and make it enter the laser guide 4 of the laser probe 2.

Furthermore, within the main body 8 of the laser surgery device 6, a guide light generator 2 that generates a guide light consisting of visible light is provided.
2 is installed. For example, a He--Ne laser oscillator is used as the guide light generator 22. This guide light is guided into the laser oscillator 9 coaxially with the YAG rod 11 through a light guide optical system 25 using reflective mirrors 23, 24 and the like. This light guiding optical system 25
A chopper 26 and a guide light shutter 27 are installed in the middle of the optical path to selectively turn on the guide light.
It is now possible to turn it off.

On the other hand, the beam shutter 15 in the laser oscillator 9 uses a wavelength selective filter as a wavelength selective transmitting material, which has a characteristic of not transmitting the surgical laser beam but transmitting the guide light. It is being This wavelength selection filter is made of, for example, a glass filter whose surface is coated with a multilayer film. As a surgical laser beam
When using YAG laser light, its wavelength is 1060nm
When a He--Ne laser beam is used as the guide light, its wavelength is 632.8 nm. Therefore, the beam shutter 15 has the characteristics shown in FIG. 4, that is, it has low transmittance for wavelengths around 1060 nm and high transmittance for wavelengths around 632.8 nm. Use characteristic filters.

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
First, by stepping on the guide light shutter 27
opens. The guide light emitted from the guide light generator 22 and chopped by the chopper 26 enters the laser oscillator 9 through the light guide optical system 25 coaxially with the YAG rod 11 . Then, it passes through the resonant mirror 13 and the YAG rod 11 on the non-emitting side and reaches the closed beam shutter 15, but since this beam shutter 15 transmits the guide light, it also passes through the beam shutter 15, and further passes through the resonant mirror 12 on the emitting side. It passes through and emits. 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 21. Thus, only the guide light is illuminated as a blinking point at the treatment site within the body cavity, and the treatment site can be confirmed in advance through the endoscope 1.

Thereafter, when the foot switch 16 is operated again, the rotary solenoid 18 of the switching operation mechanism 17 is energized and the lever 19 is rotated, thereby retracting the beam shutter 15 from the resonant optical path as shown by the solid line in FIG. As a result, the laser oscillator 9 operates to oscillate and emits a laser beam. This emitted laser light is focused through the condenser lens 21 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. Further, during the laser beam irradiation, the guide light is also irradiated, so that the target area can be continuously confirmed. Furthermore, when irradiation is completed, each shutter 1
5 and 27 are closed, and not only the surgical laser beam but also the guide light disappears. After this, endoscopic observation is performed, but since the guide light is also extinguished, it does not interfere with the observation.

As explained above, the present invention provides a laser surgical device in which a guide light passes coaxially through a surgical laser oscillator, in which the beam shutter that controls the oscillation operation blocks the surgical laser beam. Since the above-mentioned guide light is formed by a transparent wavelength-selective transmission material, it is possible to coaxially pass only the guide light for confirming the irradiation position through the laser oscillator before emitting the laser beam for surgery, and also for normal observation. Sometimes the guide light is also turned off so that the irradiated area can be clearly observed. Therefore, by passing the guide light coaxially through the laser oscillator, it is possible to confirm the area irradiated with the laser light in advance, and during normal observation, the guide light does not interfere and accurate observation is possible, which improves safety.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The drawings show one embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a laser surgical device, FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing the configuration of its main parts, and FIG. 3 is a beam shutter switching operation mechanism. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the characteristics of transmittance versus wavelength of the beam shutter. 6... Laser surgical device, 9... Laser oscillator, 11
... YAG rod (oscillation rod), 12, 13... Resonance mirror, 15... Beam shutter, 22... Guide light generator, 25... Light guiding optical system, 27... Guide light shutter.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A guide light generator that generates a visible light guide light, a surgical laser light oscillator that has a resonant mirror facing each end of an oscillation rod that transmits the guide light, and a laser light oscillator that generates oscillation. A laser surgical device comprising a light guide optical system that guides the guide light from the guide light generator coaxially with the surgical rod, the laser surgical device being selectively retractably installed in the resonant optical path of the surgical laser light oscillator. A beam shutter formed by a wavelength-selective transmitting material that blocks surgical laser light but transmits guide light, and a guide light shutter that blocks the guide light and is provided in the optical path of the guide light so that it can be selectively retracted. What is claimed is: 1. A laser surgical device comprising: a laser surgical device that is capable of selectively irradiating at least one of a guide light and a surgical laser beam.