Patent ID: 8394084

Claim:
A system for cataract surgery on an eye, comprising: a. a pulsed laser configured to produce a treatment beam which creates dielectric breakdown in a focal zone of the treatment beam within one or more tissue structures of a cataractous crystalline lens; b. a three-dimensional, optical coherence tomography imaging assembly capable of creating a continuous depth profile of the anterior portion of the cataractous crystalline lens, the profile comprising information regarding the location of a capsule of the cataractous crystalline lens and structures within the crystalline lens, by detecting remitted illumination light from locations distributed throughout a volume of the cataractous crystalline lens, and generating signals based upon the remitted light; c. an optical scanning system configured to position a focal zone of the treatment beam to a targeted location in three dimensions in the crystalline lens; and d. one or more controllers operatively coupled to the laser, optical system, and imaging assembly, and programmed to automatically: i. scan tissues of the patient's eye with the imaging assembly so as to generate image data signals to create a continuous depth profile of at least the anterior portion of the lens; ii. identify one or more boundaries of the one or more tissue structures of the cataractous crystalline lens based at least in part on the image data; iii. identify one or more treatment regions based upon the boundaries; and iv. operate the optical scanning system with the pulsed laser to produce a treatment beam directed in a pattern based on the one or more treatment regions so as to create a capsulotomy in the anterior portion of the lens, the treatment beam having a pulse repetition rate between about 1 kHz and about 1,000 kHz, and a pulse energy between about 1 microjoule and about 30 microjoules.