THE USE OF SCHEIMPFLUG PHOTOGRAPHY IN THE DOCUMENTATION OF CLINICAL STATES AND IN THE BIOMETRY OF THE ANTERIOR EYE SEGMENT

From the start of our collaboration with the Institut fur Experimentel le Ophthalmologie in the early 1980s, the scientist Otto Hockwin has a lways taken the greatest interest in the clinical use of Scheimpflug p hotography. I became a student of Hockwin's through my work on the eff ects of Verapramil. The straightforwardness and purposeful approach wi th which Hockwin persued any subject, once he had taken it up, served me as example and thereby helped me repeatedly to regain courage and p atience in my own work. The Scheimpflug apparatus developed by Hockwin 's team has proven its superiority over the conventional slit lamp pho tography through its excellent depth of focus. Further to the clinical applications of the Scheimpflug photography worked out by us and summ ed up once again in this paper, it also presents a widening of the sco pe hence available within ophthalmological teaching methods, which we can hardly do without these days. The students benefit from the far su perior spatial image conveyed by the optical section through the anter ior eye segment, compared to that obtained by the conventional slit la mp photography alone. The precision of the reproducible image of the a nterior segment furthermore represents a vital supplementary aid in th e solution of pre- and postoperative, as well as specialist diagnostic problems.