View attachment 235AN ELECTRONIC chip which could restore eyesight to the blind will be trialled in Oxford, giving hope to more than 200 county sufferers.
Experts are now appealing for people with retinitis pigmentosa (RP) to take part in the trial at the John Radcliffe Hospital early next year.
Yesterday it was revealed a blind man had his sight restored during a German trial of the revolutionary eye implant.
After an operation to install the electronic device under his retina, previously blind Miikka Terho can now find and use a knife and fork on a table, tell the time, read his own name and find people in a room.
Now experts at the JR have confirmed a trial of the same ‘chip’ style device will be held in the city, signalling fresh hope for thousands of UK sufferers of a condition called retinitis pigmentosa.
The condition, which affects about 20,000 people across the UK and 200 in Oxfordshire, is an inherited degenerative eye disease which causes the eye’s light receptor cells to gradually stop working and die off.
Prof Robert MacLaren, consultant ophthalmologist at the JR, said Oxford, and the country, should be very excited by the work.
He said: “I will see about 10 patients a week with this condition.
“After the German trial, one previously blind patient was able to read his own name with the implant switched on.
“Up until now, this concept would have been considered only in the realms of science fiction. It’s very exciting.”
The implant is a three-by-three millimetre microchip that contains 1,500 pixels designed to pick up light.
It is placed under the retina, the tissue lining the inner surface of the eye, and is powered by a battery on a necklace.
Prof MacLaren said the chip works by turning images into electrical pulses which stimulate the healthy cells in the retina.
Signals are then sent back to the brain which reconstructs the image, allowing the sufferer to see shapes.
David Thompson, of Oxfordshire Association for the Blind, said: “It’s a start, a massive breakthrough. But it’s not a cure.”
Although only being trialled for RP, Prof MacLaren said the process could be developed to help people who suffer age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness in older people. But the implant will never work for other eye diseases in which the optic nerve is damaged.
He said: “In the long term we would like to think this could offer hope to patients who are blind.
“I’ve spent a lot of my career talking to patients who cannot see.
“Now this could mean I can go back to patients and say although you may lose your sight, there is a possibility there’s something I can do to help.”
Article Oxford Mail
Experts are now appealing for people with retinitis pigmentosa (RP) to take part in the trial at the John Radcliffe Hospital early next year.
Yesterday it was revealed a blind man had his sight restored during a German trial of the revolutionary eye implant.
After an operation to install the electronic device under his retina, previously blind Miikka Terho can now find and use a knife and fork on a table, tell the time, read his own name and find people in a room.
Now experts at the JR have confirmed a trial of the same ‘chip’ style device will be held in the city, signalling fresh hope for thousands of UK sufferers of a condition called retinitis pigmentosa.
The condition, which affects about 20,000 people across the UK and 200 in Oxfordshire, is an inherited degenerative eye disease which causes the eye’s light receptor cells to gradually stop working and die off.
Prof Robert MacLaren, consultant ophthalmologist at the JR, said Oxford, and the country, should be very excited by the work.
He said: “I will see about 10 patients a week with this condition.
“After the German trial, one previously blind patient was able to read his own name with the implant switched on.
“Up until now, this concept would have been considered only in the realms of science fiction. It’s very exciting.”
The implant is a three-by-three millimetre microchip that contains 1,500 pixels designed to pick up light.
It is placed under the retina, the tissue lining the inner surface of the eye, and is powered by a battery on a necklace.
Prof MacLaren said the chip works by turning images into electrical pulses which stimulate the healthy cells in the retina.
Signals are then sent back to the brain which reconstructs the image, allowing the sufferer to see shapes.
David Thompson, of Oxfordshire Association for the Blind, said: “It’s a start, a massive breakthrough. But it’s not a cure.”
Although only being trialled for RP, Prof MacLaren said the process could be developed to help people who suffer age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness in older people. But the implant will never work for other eye diseases in which the optic nerve is damaged.
He said: “In the long term we would like to think this could offer hope to patients who are blind.
“I’ve spent a lot of my career talking to patients who cannot see.
“Now this could mean I can go back to patients and say although you may lose your sight, there is a possibility there’s something I can do to help.”
Article Oxford Mail
