Laser therapy in intraocular tumors

Intraocular tumors present special problems of diagnosis and treatment. Diagnostic methods include, in addition to systemic and ophthalmological examinations, ancillary examinations such as transillumination, fluorescein angiography, ultrasonography, radioactive phosphorus uptake test, radiology, computerized tomography, and fine-needle aspiration biopsy with cytological analyses. Previously, enucleation of the involved eye was generally accepted as management of malignant tumors. Improved therapeutic methods such as photocoagulation and better surgical techniques now provide a variety of therapeutical alternatives. This study consists of 21 cases of intraocular tumors that were managed by Argon laser photocoagulation. Four cases were intraocular metastasis and 17 cases were primitive intraocular tumors. Argon laser therapy proved to be totally ineffective for the intraocular metastasis and a very adequate therapy for the primitive tumors. Tumor extirpations (choroidal, cillary body, or iris tumors) using laser lancet proved to be more suitable than classic surgery.© (1995) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.