Specialty Fibers for Medical Laser Systems

In modern medicine, minimally invasive surgeries are increasingly important. The dominant reason being the shorter recovery time of patients compared to standard procedures. Additionally, smaller wounds also mean lower risk of complications.

Many surgical systems rely on special optical fibers. Due to unique properties of fused silica, laser light can be efficiently transported into the body. In addition, optical fibers give flexibility to reach areas of the human body that are otherwise difficult to access.

Lithotripsy of Gall, Kidney or Bladder Stones

Gallstones are hardened deposits of digestive fluid in a gallbladder. If they block a duct, immediate treatment is needed. IR laser treatment to break gallstones into fragments is state of the art. Our customers benefit from solutions for the removal of gallstones or kidney stones even in the very narrow passages of the kidneys or gallbladder due to our high NA products. We ensure excellent laser transmission with our low OH grades for optical fibers. Beside HoYAG lasers, Tm fiber lasers are used for these applications. For the manufacturing of Tm laser fibers, we offer tubes with high precision.

Vein Disease

Pressure on legs’ vessels by dysfunctional venous valves cause deformation and enlarged volume. Less painful and faster recovering methods use lasers. The tip of a fiber catheter is formed to create a radial emission. The vein wall absorbs the laser light, collapses and residual material is resorbed by the body. Heraeus offers low OH preforms with highest transmission in the IR range.

Arterial Blockage Removal

Blockage of the circulation in arteries can lead to heart attack or stroke. To remove the blockage, laser catheters can be used. A catheter guides a UV laser pulse through an optical fiber to the blockages to resolve it in the vessel. Due to the short wavelength the risk of damages to the artery is reduced as it does not penetrate deeply into the wall. Heraeus offers solutions with high OH materials with highest UV performance.

Enlarged Prostate Disease

Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia is a painful disease. Long recovery times and bleeding are side effects of classic treatments. Modern ambulant laser surgery with short recovery time is an alternative. A 532 nm laser evaporates the pathological tissue causing coagulation simultaneously to stop the bleeding. Heraeus offers high performing materials suitable for the visible transmission range.

Endodontics Treatment

Periodontology and endodontics are common dental treatments. Beside soft tissue surgery, lasers are used to reduce dental root germ load. The tooth root fine, ramified channel system is an ideal environment for bacteria and the main reason for re-infection. After a conventional therapy, the root canal can be treated by a 445 nm laser to reduce the germ load and increase the treatments success rate. The laser is transmitted through a thin optical fiber into the root canal. For all kind of applications and wavelengths we offer adapted materials.

Imaging and Endoscopy

Arterial clogging leads to serious diseases and can be prevented by minimal invasive surgeries. In preparation of these surgeries it is important to understand the local morphology. A new technique is intravascular optical coherence tomography. A 1300 nm laser illuminates the blood vessel through an optical fiber and the backscattered signal is analyzed. We have preforms optimized for applications like OCT for all wavelength ranges.

IPL (Intense Pulsed Light) Treatment

Pulsed flash lamps are not only used to excite solid-state lasers, but also without lasers such as IPL (intense pulsed light) lamps. These are mainly used in the field of medical or cosmetic treatment. Therefore, there are special requirements for the quartz glass. With a special quartz glass doping (UV block quartz glass) skin-damaging UV components should be prevented. At the same time, the glass should withstand high power and pulse durations over a long service life. For this reason, the combination of doped culture crystal grain fused in the Heraeus flame fusion process is best in class.

Tattoo Removal

To have a tattoo is common these days. The need for plastic surgery to remove tattoos has also risen. With laser irradiation in the visible light spectrum tattoos can be removed without leaving scars. This is done by laser irradiation with special wavelengths matched to the ink pigment. To meet these requirements Heraeus offers preforms for optical fibers with a broad transmission range.

Particle Detection

The detection of small particles like viruses are getting more and more important to keep society and the economy secure and people healthy. We have developed a nano channel fiber which allows detection of particles as small as 15 nm without any markers and smaller than the wavelength of light used to analyze these particles.

Tailored specialty fiber preforms for your specific application

The interaction of material (e.g. tissue) and light depends on wavelength and intensity. For example, green laser light at 532 nm is widely used for treatments like enlarged prostate tissue removal. The green laser light evaporates the pathological tissue. At the same time it interacts with the red blood cells and causes coagulation which stops tissue from bleeding.

Every medical application require unique light sources and light guiding properties for the utilized optical fibers. We are happy to help you find the best material for your application.

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