CARDIAC PHOTOABLATION INSTRUMENTS

摘要

Photoablation instruments are disclosed for creating lesions in tissue, especially cardiac tissue for treatment of arrhythmias and the like. The hand held instruments are especially useful in open chest or port access cardiac surgery for rapid and efficient creation of curvilinear lesions to serve as conduction blocks. The instruments can be used to form either endocardial or epicardial ablations, and are designed to create lesions in the atrial tissue using radiant energy in order to electrically decouple tissue segments on opposite sides of the lesion. The instrument can include a light delivering element having a light transmitting optical fiber and alight diffusing element. The light delivering element can be disposed within a pre-shaped or malleable housing to create a curvilinear lesion. The light diffusing element provides a substantially uniform distribution of laser radiation to the circular target region in an elongated curvilinear pattern. Methods of use are also provided.