Retinal Laser

Targeted laser for diabetic and retinal disease

Overview

Retinal laser treatment, or laser photocoagulation, uses focused light energy to create small controlled burns in the retina. Panretinal photocoagulation applies many burns across the peripheral retina in proliferative diabetic retinopathy and other ischemic conditions, reducing the oxygen demand of the retina and the production of growth factors that drive abnormal blood vessel growth, at the cost of some peripheral and night vision. Focal and grid laser were long the standard treatment for diabetic macular edema, as established by the Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study, though they have been largely supplanted by anti VEGF injections. Laser retinopexy surrounds retinal tears with burns that create a scar barrier to help prevent detachment. Photodynamic therapy, which activates the light sensitive drug verteporfin with a low energy laser, is used for selected conditions such as central serous chorioretinopathy and polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy. Retinal photocoagulation traces back to the work of the German ophthalmologist Gerhard Meyer Schwickerath, who used sunlight and later xenon arc light in the mid twentieth century.