Fred Hollows Foundation NZ ophthalmologist Dr Roger Dethlefs and B+L's David Walker with the SeeLuma microscope at RANZCO 2025

Incorporating the world’s first digital binoculars, SeeLuma is a game-changer in ophthalmic surgery, said David Walker, Bausch + Lomb (B+L) ANZ’s surgical marketing manager. “It’s the world’s first fully digital 3D microscope, purpose-built from the ground up for ophthalmology and digital surgery.”

Developed by Heidelberg Engineering subsidiary Munich Surgical Imaging and B+L, SeeLuma uses intuitive user interfaces and has been carefully designed to allow surgeons to look straight at a heads-up monitor without having to twist their neck, he said. “It uses digital cameras and signal processing to enhance contrast and depth of focus and develop the 3D image, but it’s the ergonomics that really makes SeeLuma different.”

Other digital microscopes force you to operate while looking sideways at a monitor to perform surgery, but SeeLuma has a C-shaped suspension arm, enabling surgeons to view the 55” and 31” 3D 4K monitor straight ahead of them. “The fully digital binoculars can be positioned freely, allowing you to take on an ergonomic posture and work with greater ease,” explained B+L. “SeeLuma is the result of decades of experience in the fields of visualisation and diagnostic imaging, offering unparalleled image quality… with all the advantages of monitor-based 3D surgery, including enhanced depth of field and lower illumination levels.”

It’s also a great collaboration and teaching tool, said Walker. “The surgeon can use the foot pedal to change settings, such as contrast and depth of focus, but there’s also a touch screen their assistant can use to bring up different settings. So each surgeon can have different settings for different procedures and different stages of the surgery. It’s the latest technology in microscopes!”