New Techniques for Laser Delivery in the Treatment of Retinal Disorder : Biomedical Optics

Blindness is an intimidating problem in worldwide. Diabetic retinopathy and Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) are two major causes of blindness. These disorders could be managed by laser photocoagulation to stop the progress of the disease and prevent blindness. The physician fixates the eye of the patient and sends a laser beam to photocoagulate many spots on the retina. The spots are arranged according to extent of the affected areas on the retina. The number of spots may be more than a thousand of spots. To photocoagulate one diseased retina, many treatment sessions are required. Unfortunately, according to some national research, this procedure has a success rate of 50%. It is expected that the success rate can be increased dramatically if there is a method to treat an eye in one treatment session. The aim of this book is to investigate new techniques for delivery of laser to the retina such that it can deliver an arbitrary pattern of laser spots in one shot. Sending a pattern could minimize the time required to photocoagulate the retina. Hence, the procedure could be done in one treatment session and the success rate could be increased.