[Measuring eyelid reflex with electroblepharography]

Safety regulations concerning the handling of low power lasers in the visible region (Class 2, according to DIN EN 60825-1) assume that the eye is protected by the eye-blink reflex, which should have completed within 250 ms during laser impact into the eye. A method has been developed to determine the temporal progression of the blink reflex by measuring the biosignal of the upper eyelid movement. In this procedure, which we call Electroblepharography (EBG), the electrical signal of the eyelid muscle is gained by means of self adherent electrode pads and is evaluated and charted after analog signal processing in the EBG-device. The graphical representation of the biopotential corresponds to the temporal position of the upper eyelid. Characteristic values as latency-time, position and velocity of the eyelid can be deduced.