Finally, there’s a brand new vision for addressing this common eye condition.
Dry age-related macular degeneration slowly damages the macula, the a part of the retina answerable for central vision.
Geographic atrophy is a complicated and irreversible type of AMD that affects about one million Americans.
Treatments have focused on slowing its progression but haven’t restored lost vision — until now.
Several patients in a revolutionary clinical trial regained their ability to read after they received an electronic eye implant that’s paired with augmented reality glasses.
“Within the history of artificial vision, this represents a brand new era,” Mahi Muqit, an associate professor within the University College London Institute of Ophthalmology who led the UK arm of the trial, said in a press release.
“Blind patients are literally in a position to have meaningful central vision restoration, which has never been done before,” he added.
Credit the photovoltaic retina implant microarray (PRIMA) system, which includes a wireless, ultra-thin microchip that incorporates 378 photovoltaic cells to switch the function of the rod and cone cells damaged by AMD.
A surgeon implants the chip under the macula in a procedure that lasts lower than two hours.
It takes a few month for the attention to settle and the brand new chip to be activated.
The patient is then given a handheld computer and AR glasses with a mini-camera and an infrared projector.
The camera captures the person’s surroundings. The visual data is distributed to the pocket computer, which translates it into an infrared light pattern.
The projector beams this pattern to the chip, where it’s converted into electrical current that stimulates the remaining, healthy neurons of the retina.
The brain interprets the brand new electrical patterns as visual information.
Patients spend several months working with these signals so that they can start reading again.
The European trial involved 38 patients who had lost central sight in not less than one eye. They’d limited peripheral vision.
Ultimately, 84% of participants were in a position to read letters, numbers and words — even five lines of a vision chart — due to PRIMA.
“Before receiving the implant, it was like having two black discs in my eyes, with the skin distorted,” said Sheila Irvine, one in every of the participants at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London.
“There was no pain through the operation, but you’re still aware of what’s happening,” Irvine added. “It’s a brand new way of searching through your eyes, and it was dead exciting once I began seeing a letter.”
Once an avid bookworm, Irvine said she has been in a position to read tiny writing on labels and complete crosswords.
Certainly one of the French patients used their newfound sight to navigate the Paris metro system.
The findings, published Monday within the Recent England Journal of Medicine, give latest hope to AMD victims.
“These are elderly patients who were not in a position to read, write or recognize faces as a consequence of lost vision. They couldn’t even see the vision chart before,” said Muqit, a senior vitreoretinal consultant at Moorfields Eye Hospital.
“They’ve gone from being in darkness to having the ability to start using their vision again, and studies have shown that reading is one in every of the things patients with progressive vision loss miss most.”
Finally, there’s a brand new vision for addressing this common eye condition.
Dry age-related macular degeneration slowly damages the macula, the a part of the retina answerable for central vision.
Geographic atrophy is a complicated and irreversible type of AMD that affects about one million Americans.
Treatments have focused on slowing its progression but haven’t restored lost vision — until now.
Several patients in a revolutionary clinical trial regained their ability to read after they received an electronic eye implant that’s paired with augmented reality glasses.
“Within the history of artificial vision, this represents a brand new era,” Mahi Muqit, an associate professor within the University College London Institute of Ophthalmology who led the UK arm of the trial, said in a press release.
“Blind patients are literally in a position to have meaningful central vision restoration, which has never been done before,” he added.
Credit the photovoltaic retina implant microarray (PRIMA) system, which includes a wireless, ultra-thin microchip that incorporates 378 photovoltaic cells to switch the function of the rod and cone cells damaged by AMD.
A surgeon implants the chip under the macula in a procedure that lasts lower than two hours.
It takes a few month for the attention to settle and the brand new chip to be activated.
The patient is then given a handheld computer and AR glasses with a mini-camera and an infrared projector.
The camera captures the person’s surroundings. The visual data is distributed to the pocket computer, which translates it into an infrared light pattern.
The projector beams this pattern to the chip, where it’s converted into electrical current that stimulates the remaining, healthy neurons of the retina.
The brain interprets the brand new electrical patterns as visual information.
Patients spend several months working with these signals so that they can start reading again.
The European trial involved 38 patients who had lost central sight in not less than one eye. They’d limited peripheral vision.
Ultimately, 84% of participants were in a position to read letters, numbers and words — even five lines of a vision chart — due to PRIMA.
“Before receiving the implant, it was like having two black discs in my eyes, with the skin distorted,” said Sheila Irvine, one in every of the participants at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London.
“There was no pain through the operation, but you’re still aware of what’s happening,” Irvine added. “It’s a brand new way of searching through your eyes, and it was dead exciting once I began seeing a letter.”
Once an avid bookworm, Irvine said she has been in a position to read tiny writing on labels and complete crosswords.
Certainly one of the French patients used their newfound sight to navigate the Paris metro system.
The findings, published Monday within the Recent England Journal of Medicine, give latest hope to AMD victims.
“These are elderly patients who were not in a position to read, write or recognize faces as a consequence of lost vision. They couldn’t even see the vision chart before,” said Muqit, a senior vitreoretinal consultant at Moorfields Eye Hospital.
“They’ve gone from being in darkness to having the ability to start using their vision again, and studies have shown that reading is one in every of the things patients with progressive vision loss miss most.”
