Patent ID: 6585724
Filing Date: 2003-07-01
Classification: A61B,A61F,G06K

Abstract:
An opthalmic surgery apparatus for treating a desired portion of a patient's eye by irradiating the desired portion with a treatment laser beam, the apparatus comprising:a laser irradiating unit having a laser beam source which emits the treatment laser beam and an irradiating optical system which optically guides the treatment laser beam emitted from the laser beam source onto the desired portion; a first ocular movement detecting unit which detects a potential difference of the eye; an irradiation control unit which controls the laser irradiating unit based on a result of detection by the first ocular movement detecting unit so that irradiation of the treatment laser beam is disabled if the detected potential difference is smaller than a first threshold level on a minus side or larger than a second threshold level on a plus side; a second ocular movement detecting unit, having a two-dimensional image pickup element for picking up an image of anterior portion of the eye, which detects a predetermined position of the anterior portion by processing the image picked up by the image pickup element; a moving unit which relatively moves an irradiation position of the treatment laser beam with respect to the eye; and a movement control unit which controls the moving unit based on a result of detection by the second ocular movement detecting unit so that the irradiation position is moved if the detected position is located out of a first allowable range with respect to a reference position, wherein the irradiation control unit controls the irradiating unit based on the result of detection by the second ocular movement detecting unit so that the irradiation of the treatment laser beam is enabled if the detected position is located within a second allowable range with respect to the reference position.