An apparatus for laser surgery on a cornea for correcting the refractive error of a patient's eye by removing away a part of the cornea by a laser beam. The apparatus has a first set device for setting the removing area in removal of stroma of the cornea, a second set device for setting the shape of the postoperation cornea, a device for restricting laser irradiation to the removing area determined by the second set device, a device for detecting whether removal of the epithelium from the cornea...

The tympanic membrane can be tightened by directing energy on spots of the tympanic membrane so as to heat up the collagen matrix layer and cause it to shrink. Energy in the frequency range of 1.4 to 2.6 microns, which roughly corresponds to a collagen absorption range of from 10 to 150 cm.sup.-1, is used.

A laser micromanipulator for surgical applications includes an adaptor attachable to a laser and to a microscope which automatically maintains, preferably using phase detection, the laser beam in focus on tissue during any changes in the working distance by the surgeon manipulating the microscope.

An optical fiber device for forming channels within a wall of a patient's heart, and particularly the epicardium, which has an elongated optical fiber, a probe tip secured to the distal end of the optical fiber and an outer support tube secured to the proximal portion of the probe tip and a distal portion of the optical fiber proximal to the probe tip. In another embodiment the optical fiber device has an elongated optical fiber, a probe tip secured to the distal end of the optical fiber and a r...

A method and apparatus for removing hair is disclosed. The method includes the step of producing at least one pulse of incoherent electromagnetic energy. The incoherent electromagnetic energy is then coupled to an area of surface of the tissue that includes more than one hair follicle. The method may alternatively include the step of applying a gel on a surface of the tissue to cool the tissue. The energy heats the hairs and hair follicles, without heating the tissue. The apparatus includes a so...

A high energy filament lamp light source, such as a quartz tungsten halogen lamp, operated in a pulsed mode with a high voltage input, creates a particular energy output. Applications of such apparatus and methods include treatment of the dermis and/or sub-epidermal tissues for the purpose of skin recontouring, thermal destruction of hair follicles for the purpose of hair removal, and others, and a method which selectively preheats a subsurface region in targeted tissue to sub-thermal modificati...

In order to render possible the ablation to different depths in a process for correcting the shape of a lens in which the surface of the lens is acted upon by the radiation of a pulsed radiation source through a shutter in specific regions exposed by the shutter and thereby removing material from the lens by the radiation effect during the impingement of each radiation pulse, wherein the radiation is concentrated in a bundle of rays, the cross section of which is smaller when striking the lens s...

A method of selecting laser parameters for performing laser-assisted myocardial revascularization to avoid inducing undesired cardiac arrhythmia without synchronization of delivery of laser energy and the patient's cardiac cycle, the method comprising the steps of minimizing the power level of laser energy used, thereby decreasing the overall trauma to the heart, selecting a pulse frequency as great as possible while avoiding adverse summation effects, selecting a pulse width as wide as possible...

A method for tracking lateral movement of an object is disclosed employing a retro-reflective disk as a positioning reference and a simplified positioning detection to determine the position of the reference disk. The reference disk having a retro-reflective surface is affixed onto the object to be tracked. An illumination beam illuminates the reference disk from one direction and imaging optics forms a bright image spot of the reference disk with the backward scattering from the reference disk....

Ophthalmologic surgical microscope which is combined internally with an optical coherence tomography ("OCT") apparatus wherein auto-focusing is provided by driving a motorized internal focusing lens of the ophthalmologic surgical microscope with a signal output from the OCT apparatus. An embodiment of the inventive ophthalmologic surgical microscope includes: (a) an optical coherence tomography ("OCT") apparatus; (b) a beamcombiner for internally coupling output from the OCT apparatus into the o...