AIM: To study the clinical characteristics and prognosis of laser pointer retinopathy.

METHODS: Eleven eyes from ten patients who came to our hospital diagnosed as laser pointer retinopathy from June 2014 to June 2016 were included. All the patients underwent routine eye examination and optical coherence tomography(OCT)examination.

RESULTS: The patients were suffering from either bilateral or unilateral visual loss, and their visual acuity ranged from 0.3 to 0.8. Fundus examinations revealed anisochromasia or a yellow spot at the fovea in some patients, while there were also some patients without obvious abnormity. OCT findings include disruption of inner retina, high reflective outer nuclear layer, detachment of retinal nerve epithelium and disruption of inner segment/outer segment line. Follow ups were done 1mo after initial treatment and 7 patients(7 eyes, 64%)experienced anatomic recovery. Visual acuity improved to 1.0 in two cases(18%).

CONCLUSION: Visual loss caused by laser pointer retinopathy could be either temporary or permanent. Long-term follow-ups are still needed to make a firm conclusion.