The use of handheld spectral domain optical coherence tomography in pediatric ophthalmology practice: Our experience of 975 infants and children

PURPOSE: Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is an important imaging tool assessing retinal architecture. In this article, we report a single centers experience of using handheld spectral domain (SD)-OCT in a pediatric population using the Envisu 2300 (Bioptigen Inc., Research Triangle Park, NC, USA). METHODS: We studied SD-OCT images from 975 patients imaged from January 2011 to December 2014. The variety of cases that underwent an SD-OCT was analyzed. Cases examples from different case scenarios were selected to showcase unique examples of many diseases. RESULTS: Three hundred and sixty-eight infants (37.7%) were imaged for retinopathy of prematurity, 362 children (37.1%) underwent the test for evaluation of suboptimal vision or an unexplained vision loss, 126 children (12.9%) for evaluation of nystagmus or night blindness, 54 children (5.5%) for an intraocular tumor or a mass lesion such as retinoblastoma, and 65 children (6.7%) for other diseases of the pediatric retina. The unique findings in the retinal morphology seen with some of these diseases are discussed. CONCLUSION: The handheld SD-OCT is useful in the evaluation of the pediatric retinal diseases. The test is useful in the assessment of vision development in premature children, evaluation of unexplained vision loss and amblyopia, nystagmus and night blindness, and intraocular tumors (including retinoblastoma).