Retinal blood oxygen measurement technology can provide reliable retinal blood oxygen metabolism information for medical diagnosis, which can stand for systemic microcirculation status. The noninvasive measurement of retinal oxygen saturation (SO2) is based on spectroscopy, which is a hot point for researchers in the field of life science. While researchers overseas have done a lot of work, researchers in China are still at the threshold of this field. Existed theses are reviewed to promote research and application in this regard. We firstly introduce the basic principle of retinal oximetry, and then summarize the various techniques that have been applied to the retinal oximetry. Advantages and limitations of each are discussed. The research achievement and application situation in retinal diseases using retinal oximetry are also summarized, and major problems of retinal oximetry encountered are discussed. Lastly, future perspectives of the retinal oximetry used in life science are discussed.