Some recent medical procedures to treat retinal diseases rely on minimal or no damage to the retina. A literature study was carried out in order to identify relevant data on the thresholds obtained in clinical studies. These are compared with data that form the basis for the “laser safety” exposure limits and emission limits for Class 1 and Class 2 (ICNIRP, ANSI Z136.1, IEC 60825-1), which are minimal ophthalmoscopically visible lesion thresholds obtained with non-human primates. Threshold for non-human primates in the millisecond regime can also be predicted well with a computer model which is valuable for a direct comparison with specific wavelength, pulse duration and retinal spot size data from medical treatment protocols. While appreciating caveats such as that the human retinas were compromised by a disease as well as variability of pigmentation and thresholds amongst humans, the data is still valuable to help improve the characterisation of the difference between injuries for humans and rhesus monkeys. Some data indicate a ratio of less than 1.3 which was also found earlier in direct comparative studies.
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