As a method used to image the retina with a high degree of spatial sensitivity, it is helpful in the diagnosis of glaucoma, macular degeneration, and other retinal disorders.

[citation needed] Scanning laser ophthalmoscopy developed as a method to view a distinct layer of the living eye at the microscopic level.

[4] However, using SLO for monitoring of individual retinal cells proved problematic because of optical aberrations created from the tissues of the anterior eye (specifically the cornea and lens).

These aberrations (caused additionally by astigmatism and other factors affecting eye position) diminished lateral resolution and proved difficult to remove.

[3][4][7][9] A major use of this increased lateral resolution from AOSLO has been the ability to determine the spatial distribution of cone cells around the fovea.

This difference has been hypothesized to originate from a natural decrease in cone density with the increase in eye axial length associated with myopia.

Because of the short scan time involved in AOSLO, eye motion itself represents an obstacle to taking images of the retina.

This has future applications for monitoring glaucoma patients who either have changes in nerve fiber layer thickness or alterations in vasculature from damage to the retina.

With the use of living subjects, AOSLO allows for these measurements as well as easier control of age and other confounding factors while maintaining similar anatomical results for cone packing density.

It is a commonly used technique but it has a large number of side effects, including nausea in one fifth of patients and in some cases death from anaphylaxis.

[20] Optical coherence tomography (OCT) represents a powerful clinical tool for monitoring retinal physiology in patients.

OCT uses low coherence interferometry to differentiate tissues within the eye and create a cross section of a living patients’ retina non-invasively.

[22] However, AOSLO represents a method with much greater translational resolution than OCT and can thus be used to track minor lateral physical changes such as the effects of eye movements on the retina.