<title>Noncontact laser fiber delivery system for endoscopic medical applications</title>

Abstract

The objective of the study was to design and to investigate laser fiber delivery system for treatment of obstructed human internal tubular organs using endoscopic techniques. This system eliminates the main disadvantages of both applied contact and non-contact probes, namely surface contamination with concomitant hydrothermal probe deterioration and large beam divergence with poor energy density, respectively. Proposed silica or sapphire probes produce quasi-collimated beam with specific outside diameter and power distribution. To provide comparative analysis of laser delivery systems' optical properties with non-contact endoscopic probes 'steady beam distance' (SBD) and 'steady beam ratio' (SBR) coefficients are proposed. The calculation results are presented in the form of the plots of the SBR - coefficients and SBDs for a 2.0 mm specific outside beam diameter versus laser wavelength, delivery fiber core diameter and its numerical aperture for both probe material. Additionally, the cross power distributions along the SBD were studied. Results obtained could provide a useful tool to designers of non-contact fiber delivery systems intended for a variety of medical applications, including endoscopic surgery with cw or pulse laser tissue irradiation, skin de-epithelialization, laser-induced fluorescence and photodynamic therapy.© (1999) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.