Patent ID: 8322348

Claim:
A method for treating human tissue, comprising: generating an output beam from a laser source; coupling the beam into an optical system that modifies the beam to provide a treatment beam having a non-uniform energy profile, said non-uniform energy profile being comprised of regions of relatively high energy per unit area within a substantially uniform background region of relatively low energy per unit area in comparison to the regions of relatively high energy per unit area; and directing the treatment beam to a target tissue such that the regions of relatively high energy per unit area of the beam illuminate portions of the target tissue and deliver sufficient energy to such portions of the target tissue to heat such portions of the target tissue to a first temperature T 1 , and wherein the substantially uniform background region of relatively low energy per unit area of the beam illuminates the remaining portion of the target tissue and delivers sufficient energy to such remaining portion of the target tissue to heat the remaining portion of the target tissue to a second temperature T 2 , wherein T 2 is less than T 1 .