Methods and systems for laser ophthalmic surgery that provide for iris exposures below a predetermined exposure limit

1. A system for cataract surgery on an eye of a patient, comprising:

a laser assembly for generating a pulsed laser treatment beam;

an imaging system configured for imaging an ocular tissue of the patient, the ocular tissue comprising corneal tissue;

an optical scanning system configured for positioning a focal zone of the treatment beam to targeted locations of the ocular tissue, the targeted locations including a location in the corneal tissue; and

a computer control system operatively coupled to the laser assembly, the imaging system, and the optical scanning system, and programmed to:

a) generate a simulated initial treatment scan pattern of the laser treatment beam for incising the corneal tissue and calculate an initial exposure level, which is an amount of laser energy per unit area of the laser treatment beam on an iris tissue of the eye caused by the initial treatment scan pattern;

b) determine whether the initial exposure level satisfies a predetermined safe exposure condition which is below an exposure that causes a minimal visible lesion in the iris tissue;

c) generate a simulated revised treatment scan pattern of the laser treatment beam for incising the corneal tissue which is different from the initial treatment scan pattern and which comprises one or more treatment scan modifying elements when the initial exposure level fails to satisfy the predetermined safe exposure condition, wherein the one or more treatment scan modifying elements cause a calculated revised exposure level, which is an amount of laser energy per unit area of the laser treatment beam on the iris tissue caused by the revised treatment scan pattern, to satisfy the predetermined safe exposure condition;

wherein the one or more treatment modifying elements comprises: (1) an extension of a scan path of the scan pattern so that a portion of each turnaround of the scan path occurs beyond an incision boundary, the extension of the scan path being greater than 50% of a turnaround distance of the scan path, or (2) an extension of the scan path of the scan pattern so that a portion of each turnaround of the scan path is gated and extends beyond the incision boundary, the extension of the scan path being greater than 50% of a turnaround distance of the scan path, or (3) a reoriented scan axis, wherein the reoriented axis is reoriented along an axis corresponding to a largest distance between opposing incision boundaries, or (4) an insertion of gated rows with respective active rows in a fixed proportion, the fixed proportion being greater than or equal to one, and less than or equal to 10; and

d) operate the optical scanning system and laser assembly to direct a treatment beam in a pattern corresponding to the revised treatment scan pattern so as to create a corneal incision.

2. A system for cataract surgery on an eye of a patient, comprising:

a laser assembly for generating a pulsed laser treatment beam;

an imaging system configured for imaging an ocular tissue of the patient, the ocular tissue comprising corneal tissue;

an optical scanning system configured for positioning a focal zone of the treatment beam to targeted locations of the ocular tissue, the targeted locations including a location in the corneal tissue to incise the corneal tissue; and

a computer control system operatively coupled to the laser assembly, the imaging system, and the optical scanning system, and programmed to:

a) generate a simulated initial treatment scan pattern of the laser treatment beam for incising the corneal tissue and calculate a first time period over which the initial treatment scan pattern is carried out to deliver a first amount of laser energy on an iris tissue of the eye;

b) determine whether the first time period is greater than a predetermined minimum time period required to deliver the first amount of laser energy on the iris for the initial iris exposure to be below a predetermined exposure limit;

c) generate a simulated revised treatment scan pattern of the laser treatment beam for incising the corneal tissue which is different from the initial treatment scan pattern and which comprises one or more treatment scan modifying elements when the first time period is not greater than the predetermined minimum time period, wherein the one or more treatment scan modifying elements cause a calculated second time period over which the revised treatment scan pattern is carried out to deliver a second amount of laser energy on the iris to be greater than the predetermined minimum time period,

wherein the one or more treatment modifying elements comprises: (1) an extension of a scan path of the scan pattern so that a portion of each turnaround of the scan path occurs beyond an incision boundary, the extension of the scan path being greater than 50% of a turnaround distance of the scan path, or (2) an extension of the scan path of the scan pattern so that a portion of each turnaround of the scan path is gated and extends beyond the incision boundary, the extension of the scan path being greater than 50% of a turnaround distance of the scan path, or (3) a reoriented scan axis, wherein the reoriented axis is reoriented along an axis corresponding to a largest distance between opposing incision boundaries, or (4) an insertion of gated rows with respective active rows in a fixed proportion, the fixed proportion being greater than or equal to one, and less than or equal to 10; and

d) operate the optical scanning system and laser assembly to direct a treatment beam in a pattern corresponding to the revised treatment scan pattern so as to create a corneal incision.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the computer control system is further programmed to control the system to perform a capsulotomy on the eye with the pulsed laser treatment beam.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the corneal incision is an arcuate corneal incision, a sideport cataract incision, or a primary cataract incision.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the initial scan pattern includes a set of parameters defining an arcuate corneal incision, a sideport cataract incision, or a primary cataract incision.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the revised scan pattern further includes a revised value for at least one of the set of parameters.

7. The system of claim 2 , wherein the initial scan pattern includes a set of parameters defining an arcuate corneal incision, a sideport cataract incision, or a primary cataract incision.