Below is a practical how-to video of the use of the Heidelberg Spectralis video scanning laser ophthalmoscopy capability. Most Heidelberg machines in use have this “movie max” capability. Once the staff are trained to do this procedure, it takes them at most a minute and a half to obtain these images, and the images can be viewed in the exam room with the patient and their family. We find this helpful at least a few times every day.

Most of the useful information is obtained with lateral saccades. It is best to have the commands separated by about a 3-second interval. That is, ask the patient to look to the side and then back immediately, then wait 3 seconds before the next command. Often patients will comment that “this is exactly what I see every day.” We find this helpful both to show patients their opacities that would benefit from surgery, and to show other patients why their findings don’t warrant surgical intervention.