Lasers in ophthalmology: new lasers, new optics, new frontiers

The authors discuss progress of lasers in ophthalmology on five fronts, diagnostic and surgical. Previously, diagnostic techniques, utilising lasers have been limited and esoteric; however, the emergence of the laser scanning ophthalmoscope holds much promise. On the surgical front, the application of newer lasers for new procedures to relieve glaucoma and more sophisticated controls such as short bursts of femtosecond or picosecond pulses in order to restrict the damage zones promise better treatments for sight threatening diseases