A Fully Implantable Epiretinal Vision Prosthesis for Retinitis Pigmentosa Patients

摘要

Retinal implants are an important approach to restore vision in patients that are blind due to photoreceptor loss from retinitis pigmentosa. There are two main approaches. One is the subretinal implant, which is implanted at the level of the degenerated photoreceptors. The second approach is the epiretinal implant, which is favourably placed on the inner retinal layer of an eye. In this, visual information is captured with an external camera, processed and transmitted to a retinal stimulator that is secured at the level of ganglion cells. As with most electrical prostheses advances are often related to advances in technology. Of equal importance are pre-clinic studies and surgical aspects of being able to implant such devices. Recently, the EpiRet group implanted and tested their epiretinal vision prothesis in blind subjects with retinitis pigmentosa. We present implant's design and results of a clinical study to demonstrate the applicability of the EpiRet vision prosthesis.