Some 300 blind people from around the world have had their vision restored, thanks to an innovative chip that is inserted into the retina of the eye.
This science-fiction-sounding technique is more than a decade old and is used to help patients suffering from rare degenerative eye diseases.
The hereditary diseases, referred to as retinitis pigmentosa (RP), gradually cause a person to lose their vision by stopping the retinal cells' or photoreceptors' ability to excite in the presence of light and produce the electrical signals that transmit visual information to the brain.
Nearly one in every 3,000 people world-wide has impaired vision caused by one of the RP vision disorders, according to the US National Organisation for Rare Disorders.
This still incredibly expensive technology, however, is a beacon of hope for those affected despite a number of desired improvements.
Currently there are two chips - an American and a German chip.
"All the developers have worked hard to make improvements, especially regarding durability and service life," says optometrist Armin Scharrer. The primary goal is to create chips that can stay in the eye 20 to 30 years, he said.
Most patients first experience symptoms when they are 30 to 40 years old and at the moment, chips can stay in the eye for around 5 years.
They would also want to improve the quality of vision by increasing the number of pixels on the chip.
Current chips allow individuals to perceive contours, outlines of people and movements again, but cannot restore colour vision. People with the special chip also need to use a small device to help them adjust ambient brightness.
Compared to the vision of a normal person, it might seem rudimentary or unimpressive.
"But a little extra eyesight goes a long way for those who cannot see anything at all," Scharrer said. Three out of four patients said that although the procedure was complicated, it was worth doing.
Without a doubt, this technology is "a big step in the right direction" for those gone blind.
Insertion of the German chip - three square millimetres large - under the retina takes nearly 7 hours and requires the expertise of an optometrist and neurologist. The battery for the chip is tucked under the skin near the back of the head and a cable leads from there to the eye.
"It's really an incredibly complicated thing," said Scharrer. The procedure costs around 100,000 euros (114,000 dollars) and is successful in approximately 75 per cent of patients. For now, it can only be used on people who were once able to see.
In some countries, like Germany, a handful of health insurance companies are willing to take on the costs for the surgery.
The US chip has fewer electrodes than the German chip and because it is placed on top of instead of under the retina, the picture is not as clear, Scharrer said. But the operation itself is much simpler: The patient wears a pair of glasses with a camera that transmits visual signals to the implanted chip. Instead of surgically inserting the battery, the patient keeps it in a small protective case tucked in their pocket.
The possibility that this innovation will be adopted in the future to serve people with other eye disorders, like age-related blindness or age-related macular degeneration, seems unlikely for now.
A preliminary study was under way in the United States, said Scharrer. But the results have yet to be published - "it seems like they are not very encouraging."
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