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`Bionic' eye allows blind people to read and recognize faces

Surgeons have fitted “bionic eyes” to two men in their 50s to partially restore their eyesight. They are the first in Britain to have the artificial retinas fitted, in three-hour operations at Moorfields Eye hospital in London, it was confirmed on Monday.

Both were completely blind, but will now be able to walk around unaided and identify simple objects. If the trial is successful, the £15,000 (US$30,000) retinas could be approved for general use within three years.

The men have an inherited disease, retinitis pigmentosa, which progressively destroys the eye’s light-sensitive cells and affects around 25,000 people in Britain.

IMPLANT

The operation implanted a tiny metal plate studded with electrodes into the retina at the back of the eye. A little video camera mounted on a pair of glasses beams images to the electrodes, which connect via the optic nerve to the brain. Patients wear a small unit at their waist to power the camera and process the images.

While not quite reproducing natural vision, the system enables the viewing of basic images on a 10x6 grid.

The two Britons are among 15 patients given the artificial retinas as part of a three-year trial in the US, Mexico and Europe.

“These people are truly blind and are dependent on a stick, a dog or another person to find their way around. We want to see if we can give them some level of rudimentary vision which they find useful, predominantly to navigate, so they get some independence,” said Lyndon da Cruz, a surgeon who performed the operations last week.

MORE DETAILS

The device is designed by a US firm Second Sight and is an upgrade of a prototype first implanted in 2002 with 16 electrodes in a 4x4 grid, enabling patients to walk about independently and distinguish objects such as a cup or plate. The latest version has 60 electrodes, giving much more detail.

Doctors expect it will take the men a few months to learn to use the system.

Linda Morfoot, 64, in Long Beach, California, was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa at the age of 21 and was almost completely blind by the time she was 50. She had a 16-electrode implant in 2004.

“When they gave me the glasses it was just amazing,” she said.

“I can shoot baskets with my grandson, I can stay in the middle of the sidewalk. I can find the door to get out of a room, and I can see my granddaughter dancing across the stage,” she said.
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