A new eye implant helps the blind to read again

A group of blind patients have regained their ability to read after receiving a revolutionary implant behind the eye.

The surgeon who implanted the microchips in five patients at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London said the results of the international trial were “amazing”.

Sheila Irvine, a 70-year-old woman who is registered blind, told the BBC: “The experience is beyond imagination and it’s really beautiful and amazing and it gives me indescribable joy.”

This technology has brought new hope to sufferers of an advanced form of macular degeneration called geographic atrophy (GA); A disease that affects more than 250,000 people in the UK and around five million people worldwide.

In people with this disease, which is mainly more common among the elderly, the cells in a very small area in the retina at the back of the eye are gradually damaged and die, as a result of which the person’s central vision becomes blurred or distorted and the ability to distinguish color and fine details is lost.

In this new method, a very small photovoltaic microchip with dimensions of 2 square millimeters and thickness equal to human hair is placed under the retina.

Patients then wear special glasses with a built-in video camera. This camera sends video images to the implant behind the eye via an infrared beam. The data is then sent to a small pocket processor to improve image resolution and quality.

After processing, the images are sent to the brain through the implant and the optic nerve, allowing the patient to regain some of their vision. Patients spend months learning how to interpret these images.

“This is groundbreaking and life-changing technology,” Mahi Mukit, a surgeon and ophthalmologist at Moorfields Hospital in London and head of the British branch of the study, told the BBC. This is the first implant that has shown that patients can use it to perform daily tasks such as reading and writing. “In my opinion, this is a great development.”

In a study whose results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine, 38 patients with geographic atrophy in five European countries participated in the Prima implant trial. This implant is made by the biotechnology company Science Corporation in California.

Of the 32 patients who received the implant, 27 were able to read again using their central vision. After one year, this improvement was equivalent to reading 25 letters or five lines more on the optometry chart.

In Sheila’s case, the result was even more dramatic. Before, he was completely unable to read. But when he was filmed at Moorfields Hospital, he was able to read the vision chart without a single mistake. After the experiment was over, he happily raised his fist and shouted.

“I can read my letters, books, crosswords and Sudoku,” says Sheila. This is wonderful. I am really happy. “Technology is advancing at an incredible pace, and it’s amazing that I’m a part of it.”

Sheila needs a lot of concentration when reading; He sometimes puts a pillow under his chin to steady the camera so he can focus on one or two words at a time. He doesn’t use the device outdoors because it requires a lot of concentration and he doesn’t want to become too dependent on it.

The Prima implant has yet to be officially licensed and is currently only available in clinical trials, so it’s unclear how much it will cost in the future. However, Mahi Mokit hopes the technology will be available to some NHS patients within the next few years. It is also possible that this technology will be used to treat other eye diseases in the future.

Dr Peter Bloomfield, director of research at the Macular Society, said the results were encouraging and great news for those who have had no treatment options. “Artificial vision can give new hope to many patients,” he said.

However, these tests are not expected to be useful for people whose optic nerve is damaged or disabled, as this nerve is responsible for transmitting signals from the retina to the brain.