A laser can produce pulses of light energy to eject a volume of the tissue, and the energy can be delivered to a treatment site through a waveguide, such as a fiber optic waveguide. The incident laser energy can be absorbed within a volume of the target tissue with a tissue penetration depth and pulse direction such that the propagation of the energy from the tissue volume is inhibited and such that the target tissue within the volume reaches the spinodal threshold of decomposition and ejects the volume, for example without substantial damage to tissue adjacent the ejected volume.

A fiber optic probe that eliminates extreme tip temperatures by radiating laser energy in a radial, 360 pattern from the surface of an exposed fiber optic tip is disclosed. In an embodiment, a fiber optic core is configured to operatively engage with a source of laser energy at a proximal end of the fiber optic tip, and, at a distal end of the fiber optic tip, includes a plurality of refracting surfaces configured to disperse laser energy in a radial pattern. In one embodiment, the refracting surfaces may be arranged as a plurality of annular prisms defined around the fiber core. In another embodiment, the refracting surfaces may be arranged as a plurality of concave lenses defined in the fiber optic tip. The temperature distribution of the disclosed probes is controlled and uniform, and may be tailored to radiate laser energy in any desired pattern which may be suitable to achieve an intended objective.

A method of delivering light energy to target matter in a mammalian body is described. The method may include inserting at least a portion of a catheter into a patient's vasculature, wherein the catheter comprises an open distal tip, a lumen extending proximally from the open distal tip, and at least one optical fiber within the lumen, wherein the at least one optical fiber has a distal end. The method may include flowing a liquid light guide medium through the open-ended catheter tip, wherein the liquid light guide medium flows beyond the distal end of the at least one optical fiber, wherein the liquid light guide medium comprises a magnesium chloride solution having an ion concentration that is isotonic with blood and tissue. The method may include forming a fluid optical channel with the liquid light guide medium between the catheter and the target matter. Other methods are described.

The present disclosure relates to the fabrication and characterization of an optical fiber capable of firing light virtually from any point along its circumferential surface. The optical fiber is preferably prepared by laser micromachining. In preferred embodiments, laser radiation is focused onto a multimode optical fiber axis, forming a conical-shaped cavity (side window) in the fiber core. Because of the total internal reflection when the laser beam reaches the side window-outside medium interface, the beam is reflected to the side of the optical fiber.

A catheter device provides a balloon structure and a side-firing laser lumen within the balloon to create lesions in the pulmonary vein (PV) in the treatment of atrial fibrillation. Mounted on the balloon so as to contact the PV when the balloon is inflated are one or more electrodes which may be used in a measurement mode, a treatment mode, or both.

A laser therapeutic apparatus includes a laser and a therapeutic optical fiber. The therapeutic optical fiber is configured for being implanted into a body of a patient during surgery to perform a repair treatment on a spinal cord site to-be-treated by irradiation and then being removed from the body of the patient after the surgery. The therapeutic optical fiber includes N number of laser fibers, N1 number of optical fiber connection components, an optical fiber guiding structure, and an optical fiber controller; the N number of laser fibers are coupled with one another by the N1 number of optical fiber connection components to form a cascaded optical fiber structure, an end of the cascaded optical fiber structure is coupled to the optical fiber guiding structure, and another end of the cascaded optical fiber structure is coupled to the optical fiber controller.

An Optical fiber with modified distal end and related methods are provided. The optical fiber extends from a proximal end portion to a distal end portion and includes a core, a cladding, a coating, and an optional jacket. The distal end portion comprises a portion with an enlarged outer diameter.

A treatment device is disclosed for treatment of a living body lumen. The treatment device can include an optical fiber having an emitting part that emits laser light from a side circumferential surface. Two or more grooves are provided in the emitting part at places different in a longitudinal direction of the emitting part. The two or more grooves have two or more kinds of shapes and intensities of the laser light emitted from the grooves adjacent to each other are different. A maximum region of intensity of the laser light emitted from the emitting part is located on one end side relative to a center position in the longitudinal direction of the emitting part. The intensity of the laser light emitted from the emitting part on the other end side of the emitting part relative to a position of the maximum region decreases toward the other end side.

An arrangement that prevents carbonization of cladding, coating, or buffer layers of a surgical laser fiber due to thermal radiation reflected back into the fiber from, or emitted by, a target of the laser, includes a thermal radiation blocking, absorbing or diverting structure. The thermal radiation blocking, absorbing or diverting structure surrounds an end portion of the fiber that has been stripped of one or more coating and/or buffer layers, and may be made of a heat resistant material such as PTFE or polyimide to block heat from reaching the coating or buffer layers, an optical ferrule such as fused silica to guide the heat away from the fiber coating or buffer layers, or a high refraction index material such as UV adhesive. The end of the fiber, including the thermal radiation blocking, absorbing or diverting structure and, optionally, at least a portion of the coating or buffer layer, may be standoff or protective sleeve structure such as a soft polymer tip or a metal, fused silica, quartz or ceramic ferrule. The standoff or protective sleeve structure may be flush with a tip of the fiber to limit erosion due to contact with the surgical laser target, or extend beyond the fiber to tip to eliminate erosion by preventing initial contact.

A method of welding a protective structure to a tip of a surgical laser fiber involves inserting the optical fiber into a length of tubing, and positioning the fiber and the tubing in a rotatable fixture arranged to simultaneously rotate the fiber and tubing while laser radiation is directed through a transparent material of the tubing, so that one or both contacting surfaces of the tubing and the fiber absorb the laser radiation and heat up to weld the tubing to the fiber. The tubing may be a length of polymer material.