Comparison of transscleral neodymium:YAG cyclophotocoagulation with and without a contact lens in human autopsy eyes.

A contact lens designed to facilitate neodymium:YAG transscleral cyclophotocoagulation was evaluated on human autopsy eyes, and the lesions produced were compared to the lesions produced by similar laser treatments without a lens. Using the thermal mode at 20-msec duration, the variables studied were distance from the corneoscleral limbus (0.5, 1.5, 2.5 mm); energy (2, 4, 6, 8 J); and offset (distance between the focal points of the aiming and therapeutic beams; settings of 5, 7, 8, 9). By gross and light microscopic inspection, the ciliary body lesions produced were similar with or without the lens. A distance between 0.5 and 1.5 mm appears optimal for damaging the pars plicata. Energies of 4 to 8 J produced ciliary epithelial destruction.