Patent ID: 7282060

Claim:
An apparatus for controlled tissue treatment comprising: a light emitter that emits at least one light beam; a moveable handpiece adapted to deliver the at least one light beam to an area of tissue to be treated in a pattern of discrete treatment zones during movement of the handpiece across the area of tissue, wherein a tissue treatment depends upon one or more operational parameters of the at least one light beam, and the movement of the hand piece across the area of tissue is defined by a plurality of variable positional parameters such that variation in at least one positional parameter affects the tissue treatment; a controller operably coupled to the handpiece for controlling the one or more operational parameters in response to the variation in at least one positional parameter; a detector configured to calculate the variations in at least one positional parameter; wherein the controller is configured to controllably adjust in real-time the one or more operational parameters in response to the variation in at least one positional parameter to cause at least one of a new non-zero treatment rate and a new treatment pattern; wherein the one or more operational parameters for the light beam include a diameter at the tissue surface in a range less than about 500 micrometers, and a treatment density in a range between about 100 and about 2000 discrete treatment zones per square centimeter per handpiece pass over a given tissue area; and further comprising a scanning mechanism, wherein the controller is configured to controllably adjust a scan parameter of the scanning mechanism to compensate for a change in the at least one positional parameter.