Science Corporation says its PRIMA device has been implanted in the first patient with Stargardt disease, as part of an ongoing trial.
The system pairs an implant at the back of the eye with camera glasses that send images to it.
Early rehabilitation sessions enabled the patient to see a letter, then read a word.
The result is an initial observation from one patient, not a general clinical outcome.
Stargardt disease is an inherited disease that causes gradual loss of central vision. It destroys the light-sensing cells on the outer part of the retina, at the back of the eye. The inner part of the retina may remain intact and continue to transmit visual signals to the brain. The condition creates a blind spot in the center of vision, which gradually grows larger. About 150.000 people worldwide have lost their sight because of it. It is currently considered incurable.
The PRIMA implant requires an operation that takes about an hour. A small device is implanted in the back of the eye, where the cells that perceive light have degenerated. The patient wears glasses with a camera, which send an image of the environment to the implant.
The implant the patient received measures two by two millimeters. According to Hodak, the vision it provides is black and white, has high contrast, and is limited to a small spot in the center of the image. This means the patient can see a few letters at a time.
PRIMA is commercially available in Europe for patients who have lost their vision due to geographic atrophy, an advanced form of age-related macular degeneration. Science Corporation believes the same approach can be used for other conditions, such as Stargardt disease.
Hodak said the company is working on a next-generation implant, which he said will be used in humans within the next year. He also estimated that within the next five years the technology could approach normal visual acuity.
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