Dermatological treatment with visualization

• US 20050154381A1
• Filed: 12/31/2004
• Published: 07/14/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Palomar Medical Technologies Incorporated (Hologic Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Palomar Medical Technologies Incorporated (Hologic Incorporated)
• Inventors: Altshuler, Gregory B., O'Shea, Liam, Laznicka, Oldrich M. Jr.
• Granted Patent: US 7,309,335 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 606/9
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 18/20 using laser
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 18/203 applying laser energy to the outside of the body
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2018/00452 Skin
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 90/30 Devices for illuminating a surgical field, the devices having an interrelation with other surgical devices or with a surgical procedure
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 90/36 Image-producing devices or illumination devices not otherwise provided for
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 90/361 Image-producing devices, e.g. surgical cameras
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 90/37 Surgical systems with images on a monitor during operation
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 5/0616 Skin treatment other than tanning
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/4795 spatially resolved investigating of object in scattering medium in vivo A61B

Abstract

The present invention provides a handheld dermatological device for visualizing a skin treatment region prior to, during, or after therapeutic treatment with therapeutic energy. An apparatus according to the teachings of the invention can include an image capture device and a display device mounted to the apparatus and electrically coupled to the image capture device. The display device is capable of displaying images of the treatment area captured by the image capture device. The apparatus can further include a head capable of transmitting therapeutic energy to a treatment area, which can be precisely aligned by the user to a desired portion of the treatment area through the use of the display device. In some embodiments, the apparatus can include one or more illumination sources for illuminating a skin target region, and shield for shielding the image capture device from direct reflection of the illuminating radiation from a selected skin surface portion.

Claims

1. A handheld dermatological device, comprising

a housing capable of being manually manipulated to position a head portion of the housing in proximity to a person'"'"'s skin, said housing being adapted for delivery of treatment energy to a target skin region,

an illumination source coupled to the housing for generating radiation to illuminate the target skin region, and

a detector disposed in said housing and adapted to primarily detect tissue scattered radiation emanating from said target skin region.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein said detector is positioned relative to said illumination source so as to primarily detect said scattered radiation.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein said illumination source is adapted to deliver radiation to a first skin surface segment so as to illuminate said target region such that at least a portion of said scattered radiation reaches the detector via a second skin surface segment.

4. The device of claim 3, further comprising a shield mounted to the head portion to shield said second skin surface segment from direction application of radiation from said illumination source.

5. The device of claim 1, wherein said housing comprises an aperture through which said scattered radiation can reach the detector and wherein said illumination source is offset relative to said aperture such that illuminating radiation reaches the target region along different paths than light collected by the detector.

6. The device of claim 5, wherein said illumination source is positioned at an angle relative to an optical axis of the detector.

7. The device of claim 1, wherein said detector comprises an image capture device for generating an image of the target skin region.

8. The device of claim 7, further comprising a display mounted to the housing for displaying said image.

9. The device of claim 1, further comprising a treatment source disposed in said housing for generating the treatment energy.

10. The device of claim 9, wherein said treatment source generates radiation having one or more wavelengths in a range of about 400 nm to about 3000 nm.

11. The device of claim 9, wherein said treatment source generates radiation having one or more wavelengths in range of about 600 nm to about 1900 nm.

12. The device of claim 9, wherein said treatment source generates radiation having one or more wavelengths in a range of about 800 nm to about 1100.

13. The device of claim 9, wherein said treatment source generates radiation having a fluence in a range of about 1 to about 200 J/cm².

14. The device of claim 9, wherein said treatment source generates radiation pulses with pulse widths in a range of about 1 ns to about 10 seconds.

15. The device of claim 9, wherein said treatment source comprises a solid state laser.

16. The device of claim 1, wherein said housing is adapted for receiving the treatment energy from an external treatment source and wherein said external treatment source is a radiation source and said device further comprises an optical fiber for directing radiation from said treatment source to the target skin region.

17. The device of claim 1, further comprising a first polarizer coupled to the illumination source and a second polarizer coupled to said detector, wherein said second polarizer is substantially orthogonal to said first polarizer.

18. The device of claim 1, further comprising

a radiation guiding element adapted to contact a skin surface region, said illumination source being optically coupled to the guiding element for coupling radiation into the guiding element so as to generate waves refractively coupled to the target region, and

a polarizer coupled to said detector to substantially prevent radiation reflected from said skin surface region from reaching the detector while allowing detection of radiation scattered from the target region in response to the refractively coupled waves.

19. The device of claim 18, wherein the guiding element comprises any of sapphire and quartz.

20. The device of claim 18, wherein the guiding element is formed of a material having an index of refraction in a range of about 1.5 to about 1.9.

21. The device of claim 18, further comprising another polarizer coupled to the illumination source having a polarization axis substantially orthogonal to said polarizer coupled to the detector.

22. The device of claim 1, further comprising additional illumination sources.

23. The device of claim 22, wherein said illumination sources can generate radiation with different wavelengths.

24. The device of claim 22, further comprising a control unit for selectively activating the illumination sources in an illumination pattern.

27. The method of claim 23, wherein said illuminating step comprises illuminating a first skin surface with radiation such that at least a portion of the radiation penetrates the skin tissue below a second skin surface, and wherein said detecting step comprises detecting tissue scattered radiation emanating from the second skin surface to obtain an image of the target skin region.

28. The method of claim 27, further comprising shielding the second skin surface from direct application of the radiation.

29. The method of claim 28, further comprising utilizing said image to align a treatment energy beam with a portion of skin tissue in said target skin region.

30. The method of claim 23, further comprising selecting said illumination radiation to have one or more wavelengths in a range of about 350 nm to about 2000 nm.

31. The method of claim 27, further comprising monitoring one or more images of the target skin region concurrent with application of said treatment energy.

25. A method of treating a target skin region, comprising

illuminating the target skin region,

detecting primarily tissue scattered radiation emanating from said target region in response to said illumination, and

directing treatment energy to at least a portion of the target skin region.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein said illuminating step comprises directing radiation along a first direction to the skin surface, and wherein said detecting step comprises detecting said scattered radiation along a second direction offset relative to said first direction

32. A handheld dermatological device, comprising:

a housing for applying treatment energy to a portion of a person'"'"'s skin surface to treat a target skin region,

an illumination source coupled to said housing for illuminating said target skin region from below said portion of the skin surface, and

a shield disposed in said housing so as to substantially prevent said illumination source from directly illuminating said portion of the skin surface from above said portion of the skin surface.