Systems and methods are described for cataract intervention. In one embodiment a system comprises a laser source configured to produce a treatment beam comprising a plurality of laser pulses; an integrated optical system comprising an imaging assembly operatively coupled to a treatment laser delivery assembly such that they share at least one common optical element, the integrated optical system being configured to acquire image information pertinent to one or more targeted tissue structures and direct the treatment beam in a 3-dimensional pattern to cause breakdown in at least one of the targeted tissue structures; and a controller operatively coupled to the laser source and integrated optical system, and configured to adjust the laser beam and treatment pattern based upon the image information, and distinguish two or more anatomical structures of the eye based at least in part upon a robust least squares fit analysis of the image information.

A system for ophthalmic surgery on an eye includes: a pulsed laser which produces a treatment beam; an OCT imaging assembly capable of creating a continuous depth profile of the eye; an optical scanning system configured to position a focal zone of the treatment beam to a targeted location in three dimensions in one or more floaters in the posterior pole. The system also includes one or more controllers programmed to automatically scan tissues of the patient's eye with the imaging assembly; identify one or more boundaries of the one or more floaters based at least in part on the image data; iii. identify one or more treatment regions based upon the boundaries; and 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.

An ophthalmic instrument for the application of laser radiation in a patient's eye, particularly for the examination and/or surgical laser treatment of the cornea and the lens of the eye, includes a femtosecond laser, an objective and optical assemblies. The optical assemblies are arranged in front of the objective selectively vary the focus position in the coordinate direction X,Y and Z either within the region of the cornea or within the region of the lens of the eye. The objective or at least one lens group is movable relative to the eye. The variation of the position of the lens group or objective shifts the focus position from the cornea to the lens of the eye and vice versa.

An ophthalmic device for treating an eye includes a laser source, a scanner system and an application head with a focusing optic and a patient interface for docking the application head onto the eye. Moreover, the ophthalmic device includes a measurement system for optically capturing eye structures when the application head is docked to the eye and a circuit which is configured to determine reference structures of the eye, which are arranged in ring-shaped fashion about the center axis of the anterior chamber of the eye, from the captured eye structures and to arrange a defined three-dimensional treatment model with respect to these reference structures in order to process a three-dimensional treatment pattern in accordance with the arranged three-dimensional treatment model in the eye.

Systems and methods automatically locate optical surfaces of an eye and automatically generate surface models of the optical surfaces. A method includes OCT scanning of an eye. Returning portions of a sample beam are processed to locate a point on the optical surface and first locations on the optical surface within a first radial distance of the point. A first surface model of the optical surface is generated based on the location of the point and the first locations. Returning portions of the sample beam are processed so as to detect second locations on the optical surface beyond the first radial distance and within a second radial distance from the point. A second surface model of the optical surface is generated based on the location of the point on the optical surface and the first and second locations on the optical surface.

There is disclosed a system and method for irradiating extracellular macular deposits through a cornea of an eye utilizing laser pulses. In an embodiment, the method comprises generating laser pulses of between about 1 femtosecond to 1,000,000 femtoseconds in a wavelength range from about 200 nanometers to 30 micrometers; and irradiating the extracellular macular deposits with the laser pulses for a preset temporal duration, energy, wavelength, spectral distribution, energy fluence, and power density. In an embodiment, the laser source generates a laser pulse in the range of about 0.001 nJ to 100 mJ of optical energy. By focusing the laser at a depth targeting extracellular macular deposits, the irradiating laser pulse is configured to ionize, remove, deplete, denature, and destroy the extracellular macular deposits without damaging the retinal pigmented epithelium cell membrane or mascula.

A method is disclosed for controlling an eye surgical laser of a treatment apparatus for the separation of a volume body with a predefined posterior interface and a predefined anterior interface from a human or animal cornea. The method includes controlling the laser with a control device of the treatment apparatus such that it emits pulsed laser pulses in a shot sequence in a predefined pattern into the cornea. The interfaces of the volume body to be separated are defined by the predefined pattern and the interfaces are generated by means of an interaction of the individual laser pulses with the cornea by the generation of a plurality of cavitation bubbles. An arc length of the anterior interface and an arc length of the posterior interface are generated of equal length in all radial directions by at least one indentation in one of the interfaces.

Systems and techniques for laser surgery are described. Scan data may be created by determining a coordinate of the object at a set of points along an arc by the imaging system, wherein the coordinate of the object is a Z coordinate of an object layer. An object shape parameter and position parameter may be determined based on the scan data by a system control module by extracting an amplitude and a phase of the scan data determining a center of the object layer based on the extracted amplitude and phase.

A method of verifying a laser scan at a predetermined location within an object includes imaging at least a portion of the object, the resulting image comprising the predetermined location; identifying the predetermined location in the image, thereby establishing an expected scan location of the laser scan in the image; performing a laser scan on the object by scanning a focal point of the laser beam in a scanned area; detecting a luminescence from the scanned area and identifying an actual scanned location within the image based on the detected luminescence; and determining whether the difference between the actual scanned location and the expected scan location is within a threshold value.

Systems and methods for fragmenting a lens by a laser cataract surgery system includes a sub-nanosecond laser source generating a treatment beam that includes a plurality of laser beam pulses. An optical delivery system is coupled to the sub-nanosecond laser source to receive and direct the treatment beam. A processor is coupled to the sub-nanosecond laser source and the optical delivery system. The processor includes a tangible non-volatile computer readable medium comprising instructions to determine a lens cut pattern for lens fragmentation and determine a plurality of energies of the treatment beam as a linear function of a depth of the lens cut pattern. The treatment beam is output according to the lens cut pattern and the determined energies.