Conventional retinal surgery requires the surgeon to look directly into the ocular lenses of a binocular microscope and uses an extremely intense light to obtain an optical image, which may damage the patient's retina. We have developed a new system that allows a surgeon to perform this operation with far less optical illumination. It combines an ultrahigh-sensitivity Super-HARP HDTV camera with a 3D system developed by NHK Engineering Services. Using this system, a surgeon can operate on the retina while looking at a stereoscopic video image of the patient's ocular fundus.
Clinical trials confirmed that this system enables a surgeon to perform retinal surgery with approximately 1/3 to 1/10 of the conventional illumination. It also earned a favorable evaluation from the surgeons of the trials, who said that its stereoscopic image is better than that of a binocular microscope. This advanced retinal surgical system is gentle on the eyes of the patient as well as the eyes of the surgeon.