A revolutionary electronic eye implant, thinner than a human hair, has restored reading vision to 84% of patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD), according to a clinical trial. The device, called Prima, is a 2mm by 2mm microchip implanted under the retina in a procedure lasting less than two hours.
The trial involved 38 elderly patients with geographic atrophy, an advanced form of dry AMD that causes progressive central vision loss. After receiving the implant, participants could read letters, numbers, and words using augmented reality glasses connected to a waistband computer. The glasses project infrared images onto the chip, which converts them into electrical signals sent to the brain.
Mahi Muqit, a consultant at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London, described the results as a 'new era' in artificial vision. 'Blind patients are actually able to have meaningful central vision restoration, which has never been done before,' he said. Patients required training to adapt to the new way of seeing.
Sheila Irvine, a 75-year-old from Wiltshire who received the implant at Moorfields, said: 'Before, it was like having two black discs in my eyes. It was dead exciting when I began seeing a letter.' The findings were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
