Endolaser photocoagulation dual-clad fiber probe with integrated optical coherence tomography using 3D printed micro-optics

Retinal endolaser photocoagulation is a vitreoretinal procedure that uses a fiber-based endolaser probe to treat a range of retinal diseases. Intraoperative sensory feedback could greatly improve safety and treatment precision, but slit-lamp-based systems struggle to track a moving probe, and the small size of intraocular instruments limits sensor integration. We present a fiber-optic smart instrument capable of both surgical laser delivery and realtime tomographic monitoring of tissue changes. The surgical and OCT beams are co-axially transmitted through the outer multimode and inner single-mode cores of a dual-clad fiber. A 300 µm 3D nano-printed aspherical microlens at the fiber tip optimizes beam shaping for both wavelengths in the vitreous. We describe the probe’s design, fabrication, and ex vivo validation in porcine eyes.