A multi-spot laser system for retinal disorders treatment: Experimental study

Abstract

Laser has many uses in ophthalmology depending on its interaction with the different layers of the eye. Laser photocoagulation techniques are used to manage many retinal disorders such as Diabetic Retinopathy by stopping the progress of the disease and prevent blindness through applying small burns on the retina to prevent the severe bleeding of the retinal blood vessels. This treatment procedure requires photocoagulation of the entire peripheral retina in order to save central vision. However, for each eye, it requires several thousands of laser shots that could be achieved in several hours divided over many treatment sessions. Instead, sending a pattern of laser spots could minimize the time required to photocoagulate the retina, hence, the photocoagulation process could be achieved through less treatment sessions, which is needed due to the increasing number of patient and relative shortage of ophthalmologists worldwide. In this work, a technique for multi-spot laser delivery system that can send a desirable pattern of laser spots to the retina in one shot was experimentally implemented and investigated. The optical setup utilized the application of liquid crystal display as a two dimensional array optical switch allowing laser spots to pass through it according to a predetermined pattern providing promising results as a multi-spot laser system to minimize treatment sessions and human errors.