Article
Yes, we can – deep insights of a slit lamp
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Published: | September 21, 2010 |
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Background: Many new technical developments have been introduced during the last years for the diagnosis of retinal diseases. Especially those ophthalmologists, however, working in rural areas often have no direct access to these apparatuses. How can a “general ophthalmologist” improve his documentation of retinal findings with a video-slitlamp?
Methods and results: The video shows in a fictitious talk between the slit lamp and its user (M-M) how fundus documentation with the slit lamp can be improved. The background music played by the author underlines the didactic intention, but also encourages to a more imaginative use of the slit lamp. Despite its limitations there are many advantages of the documentation with the slit lamp: wide range of enlargement, red free light and relatively good quality of the picture in the retinal periphery. The generally available program Powerpoint can be used for the “flicker-test” to detect changes in retinal tissue, but also to build picture arrangements of the posterior pole and even pan fundus overviews.
Conclusions: By applying a diversity of photographic methods a video-slitlamp can be used for quick and effective documentation of the whole spectrum of retinal diseases. Especially for small practices with a more basic equipment a higher level of fundus documentation may be achieved as a part of a modern “video-ophthalmology”.