CONE PHOTORECEPTOR INTEGRITY ASSESSED WITH ADAPTIVE OPTICS IMAGING AFTER LASER POINTER-INDUCED RETINAL INJURY

PURPOSE To examine the three-dimensional foveal cone photoreceptor structure in a patient who had suffered laser pointer induced retinal injury. METHODS Patient underwent standard fundus photography and clinical spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) imaging. High-resolution imaging was performed using an Adaptive Optics-OCT-Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscope (AO-OCT-SLO). RESULTS AO imaging revealed loss of inner and outer segments of cone photoreceptors while the anterior retinal layers appeared healthy. Analysis of cone topology showed an increase in Voronoi domain area and a less regular hexagonal packing structure closer to the lesion site. CONCLUSION Exposure to laser pointer radiation, however brief, can result in damage to the retina. Here, repeated imaging nine months later showed a decrease in the size of the lesions (ranging from 3.7 to 23.9%) compared to the first time point. However, the longer-term prognosis is likely permanent scarring.