Intensity of the flash associated with laser-induced plasma in the eye

A bright flash of light is emitted by the plasma formed at the focus of an ophthalmic Nd: YAG laser. The purpose of this investigation is to determine whether the plasma flash constitutes a hazard to the operator. The intensity of the flash at the slit lamp eyepiece was measured and the experimentally derived value was verified by independent calculation. For hazard assessment purposes, the concept of a spectrally weighted maximum permissible exposure (MPE) is described in the paper. Based on the MPE and our measurements and calculations our conclusion is that viewing the flash in a patient's eye through the microscope would not be considered hazardous to the operator. In contrast, during technical procedures, targets in air are used to produce a plasma and in this situation eye protection is recommended when viewing the flash through the microscope.