The Maintenance of the Slit Lamp

This video clearly explains the basic maintenance of the Slit lamp.The Maintenance of the slit lamp consists of three assemblies’ namely base assembly, Illumination column assembly and Optics assembly.

• The base assembly can be subdivided into joystick assembly and rail rod assembly.
• The illumination column assembly consists of the Halogen/ LED illuminator, various filters and aperture assemblies and a reflecting mirror which reflects the light to the patient eye. The most common maintenance in the illumination column will be for the Slit image irregularity which occurs due to the wear and tear of the washers in the cam knob and the slit shutter getting weak spring tension. The reflecting mirror has to be changed after a certain duration of time depending on the damage that happened in the mirror reflector coating.
• The optics assembly has the eyepiece assembly and the magnification drum assembly. The basic check that needs to be done in the optics assembly is the diopter setting in the eyepiece and the magnification drum must be in the correct locking position, to get the proper and best visibility of the patient’s eye.

We can check the focusing distance using the testing rod provided along with the slit lamp. This will help us to know whether the working distance is perfect in the slit lamp.

The input electrical supply to the equipment is another crucial factor that must be examined for the slit lamp to operate at its best. It is strongly advised to connect the stabilizer to the main supply in case the input power fluctuates, and the slit lamp supply must be drawn from the stabilizer.

When not in use, the apparatus must be kept covered with a dust cover to keep dust from getting into the mechanical and optical parts of the apparatus and to improve apparatus’s effectiveness. When not in use, place silica gel close to the optics and keep them covered if the environment where the equipment is used has a higher humidity level; this will help prevent fungal growth in the optics.