Restoring Eyesight: Electronic Chips in Retina Help Blind Man See
Baku June 21 (AZERTAC). Restoring eyesight for some eye disease is not only getting close to reality in medical science - it`s here. A study in Europe showed amazing results.
Science has long had the dream of enabling blind persons to see and it is getting to the point where for some it now can. Indeed for three men in Europe it has and researchers are excited about the results.
Researchers at the University of Tubingen in Germany implanted electronic chips into the retinas of blind persons and results were published in November 2010 in the scientific journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Three people were involved in the test and for one in particular the results were extremely good. Researchers say they will soon conduct more studies.
A 3 mm-by-3 mm electronic chip, wired to a small battery that is worn around the person`s neck, is installed under the retina. The chip`s job is to replace the retina`s cells that are not functioning and the chip uses some 1,500 light-sensitive elements to do so.
The chip doesn`t work for blindness which is caused by optic nerve damage but on conditions affecting areas of the eyes which take light and relay it to the brain in electrical signals, the rod and cone cells. Researchers feel it will work for retinitis pigmentosa, a hereditary illness that destroys light-sensitive cells in the retina. It will also help, they say, choroideraemia and macular degeneration due to age.
Once Blind Sees Patterns, Letters and Items
A man from Finland seems to have had the greatest gain in sight. The 46-year-old man, Mikka Terho, suffers from retinitis pigmentosa and had lost vision progressively since being a teenager and was legally blind by the time of the implantation of the chips three years ago.
The study said he "...regained visual functions enabling him to localize and approach persons in a room freely...read large letters as complete words after several years of blindness." It also said the Mr. Terho can now "correctly describe and name objects like a fork or knife on a table, geometric patterns, different kinds of fruit and discern shades of grey with only 15% contrast."
Other news in this section
