Patent ID: 6030376
Filing Date: 2000-02-29
Classification: A61B,A61F

Abstract:
A corneal surgical apparatus for ablating an area of a cornea in a patient's eye comprising:an observation optical system for observing an anterior part of the patient's eye;a laser beam irradiating optical system for irradiating a laser beam which causes the corneal ablation; andan eye tracking unit that performs tracking between an irradiation position of the laser beam of said laser beam irradiating optical system and the patient's eye, said eye tracking unit comprising:an illumination optical system that projects an illumination light into the patient's eye throught a pupil and illuminates the anterior part by the illumination light reflected at a fundus;a photographic element for photographing a retro-illumination image of the pupil illuminated by the reflected illumination light and for providing a signal;image processing means for processing the signal of the retro-illumination image of the pupil transmitted from said photographic element and locating an edge of the pupil;determining means for determining a moving direction and an amount of movement based on a position of the edge of the pupil located by said image processing means;a control unit that controls movement of said laser beam irradiating optical system relative to the patient's eye based on data determined by said determining means.