Improved photoacoustic dosimetry for retinal laser surgery

For years now, lasers have been used for different medical interventions especially in ocular procedures. In these procedures, laser photocoagulation is well established, and efforts are made to reduce collateral damage from thermal diffusion with a novel treatment using shorter laser pulses. To be widely used, these techniques require a method to ensure safe but sufficient dosage of laser pulses. In this paper, we present a method that takes advantage of temporal pulse formatting technology to minimize variation in absorbed dose in ophthalmic laser treatment and provide intelligent dosimetry feedback based on photoacoustic (PA) response.