Retinal injury from handheld lasers: a review

Kavita V. Bhavsar; Zachary Michel; Miles Greenwald; Emmett T. Cunningham; K. Bailey Freund

doi:10.1016/j.survophthal.2020.06.006

Retinal injury from handheld lasers: a review

Kavita V. Bhavsar
, Zachary Michel
, Miles Greenwald
, Emmett T. Cunningham
, K. Bailey Freund

Ophthalmology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review

23 Scopus citations

Abstract

Retinal photic injury induced by handheld lasers is a burgeoning public health concern due to the wider accessibility of high-powered devices. Retinal damage from thermal energy can cause potentially severe and permanent vision loss in children and young adults who are particularly vulnerable because of comorbid behavioral, learning, and psychiatric impairments. Understanding the spectrum of specific clinical and imaging features of such laser injuries aids in prompt and accurate diagnosis. Multimodal retinal imaging is important for the identification of the outer retinal abnormalities that characterize this condition. We reviewed 171 reported cases in the English and non-English language literature published from 1999, when handheld laser injury was first described, to December, 2018. Risk factors, demographic and clinical characteristics, as well as multimodal imaging findings, were collected and summarized. These findings both provide insights for public health awareness and guide areas of future investigation.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	231-260
Number of pages	30
Journal	Survey of Ophthalmology
Volume	66
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.survophthal.2020.06.006
State	Published - Mar 1 2021

Funding

Supported by unrestricted departmental funding from Research to Prevent Blindness (New York, NY) and by grant P30 EY010572 from the National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, MD). Dr. Bhavsar receives financial support from the Portland VA Healthcare System. Dr. Freund is a consultant to Optos, Allergan , Novartis , Optovue , Bayer , Zeiss , and Heidelberg Engineering and receives research support from Genentech / Roche . The authors do not have any relevant conflicts of interest. Supported by unrestricted departmental funding from Research to Prevent Blindness (New York, NY) and by grant P30 EY010572 from the National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, MD). Dr. Bhavsar receives financial support from the Portland VA Healthcare System. Dr. Freund is a consultant to Optos, Allergan, Novartis, Optovue, Bayer, Zeiss, and Heidelberg Engineering and receives research support from Genentech/Roche. The authors do not have any relevant conflicts of interest.

Funders	Funder number
Portland VA Healthcare System
Author National Institutes of Health National Institutes of Health National Institutes of Health National Institutes of Health The Bev Hartig Huntington's Disease Foundation National Institutes of Health
Research to Prevent Blindness	P30 EY010572
Heidelberg Engineering (Heidelberg, Germany), Amgen

Keywords

handheld laser maculopathy
optical coherence tomography
retinal imaging
retinal laser injury
retinal phototoxicity

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Ophthalmology

Access to Document

10.1016/j.survophthal.2020.06.006

Cite this

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title = "Retinal injury from handheld lasers: a review",

abstract = "Retinal photic injury induced by handheld lasers is a burgeoning public health concern due to the wider accessibility of high-powered devices. Retinal damage from thermal energy can cause potentially severe and permanent vision loss in children and young adults who are particularly vulnerable because of comorbid behavioral, learning, and psychiatric impairments. Understanding the spectrum of specific clinical and imaging features of such laser injuries aids in prompt and accurate diagnosis. Multimodal retinal imaging is important for the identification of the outer retinal abnormalities that characterize this condition. We reviewed 171 reported cases in the English and non-English language literature published from 1999, when handheld laser injury was first described, to December, 2018. Risk factors, demographic and clinical characteristics, as well as multimodal imaging findings, were collected and summarized. These findings both provide insights for public health awareness and guide areas of future investigation.",

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AB - Retinal photic injury induced by handheld lasers is a burgeoning public health concern due to the wider accessibility of high-powered devices. Retinal damage from thermal energy can cause potentially severe and permanent vision loss in children and young adults who are particularly vulnerable because of comorbid behavioral, learning, and psychiatric impairments. Understanding the spectrum of specific clinical and imaging features of such laser injuries aids in prompt and accurate diagnosis. Multimodal retinal imaging is important for the identification of the outer retinal abnormalities that characterize this condition. We reviewed 171 reported cases in the English and non-English language literature published from 1999, when handheld laser injury was first described, to December, 2018. Risk factors, demographic and clinical characteristics, as well as multimodal imaging findings, were collected and summarized. These findings both provide insights for public health awareness and guide areas of future investigation.

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Retinal injury from handheld lasers: a review

Abstract

Funding

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

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