Development of minimally invasive laser device using composite-type optical fiberscope of 1.1 mm in diameter

Seki, Takeshi*; Oka, Kiyoshi; Naganawa, Akihiro*; Chiba, Toshio*

During conventional endoscopic laser treatments, it is difficult to keep distance between target tissue and fiberscope tip for effective laser irradiation. Moreover, the choice of laser power and diagnosis of a successful procedure depend on the operator's skill or instincts. Therefore, we developed a new minimally invasive laser device using a 1.1 mm in diameter composite-type optical fiberscope (COF) to overcome the above problems. This device enables transmission of 50 W Yb fiber laser and an image in parallel. In addition, this COF enables the measurement of the blood-flow of target tissue and estimates of the distance between irradiation area and the fiber tip in real time by means of an embedded laser Doppler blood-flow meter. In this paper, we present a configuration of the minimally invasive laser device using the 1.1 mm COF and the results of the basic performance experiments.