Modeling retinal laser surgery in human eye

Ophthalmology has used laser extensively for diagnosis and treatment of many maladies of the eye since the 1960s [1,2]. The first significant biomedical study dates back to 1961, with experiments on ruby laser-induced photocoagulation in the eyes of rabbits [3]. Laser is now used in the treatment of a range of eye diseases including nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism, and complex conditions such as age-related macular degeneration, diabetic maculopathy, retinopathy, choroidal neovascularization, and glaucoma. Laser eye therapies range from continuous wave (cw) photocoagulation to more recent techniques such as selective retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) treatment (SRT) [4], photodynamic therapy (PDT) [5], and transpupillary thermotherapy (TTT) [6]. Argon, krypton, argon pumped dye, Nd:YAG, and most recently, near-IR diode lasers are commonly used for ophthalmic laser treatments.