Improvement of optical coherence tomography using active handheld micromanipulator in vitreoretinal surgery

An active handheld micromanipulator has been developed to cancel hand tremor during microsurgery. The micromanipulator is also applicable in optical coherence tomography to improve the quality of scanning and minimize surgical risks during the scans. The manipulator can maneuver the tool tip with six degrees of freedom within a cylindrical workspace 4 mm in diameter and 4 mm high. The imaging system is equipped with a 25-gauge Fourier-domain common-path OCT probe. This paper introduces the handheld OCT imaging system and techniques involved and presents stabilized OCT images of A-mode and M-mode scans in air and live rabbit eyes. We show the first demonstration of OCT imaging using the active handheld micromanipulator in vivo.