Miracle Eye Implant Restores sight to Blind

by Victoria Fletcher

A MAN who was totally blind can now read letters of the alphabet and the time on a clock face with a microchip implanted in his eye, it was revealed yesterday.

Experts said hopes of such a leap forward had previously existed “only in the realm of science fiction”.

But now researchers have shown it is possible to restore vision lost to disease with an electronic eye.

The study, by a team in Germany, will offer hope to the 25,000 Britons who are told they will go blind due to an inherited condition known as retinitis pigmentosa.

But it could also eventually treat the 300,000 who have macular degeneration which also leads to blindness.

The microchip, smaller than the tip of a pen and containing 1,500 tiny light sensors, fits into a natural space beneath the retina.

When an image comes through the lens of the eye it hits the sensors which send an electrical pulse to nerve cells at the back of the eye. These transmit the message to the brain.
Miikka can now tell an apple from a banana and right Professor Robert Maclaren

The device is powered by a thin cable that runs from the eye, out of the side of the skull and is attached to a battery behind the ear.

The new study reveals that three patients have been able to see grainy images of objects and recognise shapes after having the device fitted.

Finn Miikka Terho, 46, was able to walk around a room with ease, read his own name and even tell researchers they had spelt it wrongly.

He could recognise shades of grey, read the time from a clock and pick up an apple and a banana from the table in front of him.

Before the implant he was totally blind apart from being able to detect changes between light and dark.

The pilot study, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B Journal, means the technology behind the device works, is safe and is ready to be tested on a larger number of patients in a proper clinical trial.

Although it does not mean patients will ever be able to see normally, it does raise the prospect that the blind will be helped to see enough to regain some independence.

Prof Robert Maclaren, Professor of Ophthalmology at Oxford University, will conduct the next trial.

He said: “This is a big breakthrough, no two ways about it. To take someone who is blind and help them see again is pretty incredible.”

He added: “The successful testing of this electronic implant in Germany is without doubt a truly significant advance.

“One previously blind patient was able to read his own name with the implant switched on. Until now, this concept would have been considered only in the realms of science fiction.”

In recent years, scientists have helped to restore vision using a small camera mounted on spectacles.

This allowed a rough interpretation of an image beamed through a wire into the brain.

But the new device, developed by German scientist Prof Eberhart Zrenner, shows that the damaged light receptor cells in the eye can simply be replaced by a microchip.

The rest of the image is obtained by the natural eye. Prof Zrenner has now set up the technology firm Retinal Implant AG to develop the device.

Around one in 3,000 Britons have retinitis pigmentosa, which destroys light cells in the eye.The condition, triggered by a range of genes, is incurable and untreatable.
More than 10 times as many people have macular degeneration.

It usually affects older adults and leads to a loss of central vision, making it difficult or impossible to read or recognise faces although enough some peripheral vision remains.

Prof Maclaren said he was thrilled he could now tell patients with retinitis pigmentosa that there was hope ahead after years of having to tell them they would be left completely blind. And he said that although the device did not offer an amazing quality of vision, it would be significant for people who had previously been unable to see anything.

David Head, chief executive of the British Retinitis Pigmentosa Society, welcomed the news, calling it “a very significant advance”. But he said he wanted patients to realise that even this breakthrough would not restore their vision.
He added: “The technology is exciting and hopefully this will advance in the next few years but we have to temper it with reality.”

Up to 12 patients are expected to take part in the British study, due to start early next year at King’s College Hospital, London, and the Oxford Eye Hospital.It is hoped that when the device can be left in place for years instead of months, the brain may learn to interpret the grey and white images into far more accurate pictures of what the eye is really seeing.