Bionic Eye Helps 80 Year-Old Man See Again
Restoring eyesight by means of a bionic eye implant is not the stuff of science fiction. Ray Flynn, an 80 year-old man from the UK, is the newest affected person to have his vision partially restored by way of a bionic eye implant, in line with the BBC.
Surgeons in Manchester efficiently implanted the Argus II, a bionic eye implant made by Second Sight, into Flynn permitting him to see the “outlines of people and objects very effectively” the place he beforehand couldn’t.
Flynn has dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a medical situation that forestalls him from having central vision, which means all the things within the center of his sight appears like a round blur.
The bionic eye implant works in tandem with a particular pair of glasses with a digital camera. The video digital camera data photographs after which turns them into electrical pulses, that are then transmitted wirelessly to electrodes related to the retina.
Though Flynn just isn’t the primary affected person to bear the bionic eye implant surgical procedure — earlier this yr, 68-year-old Allen Zderad additionally obtained the bionic eye implant to revive partial vision for retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative eye illness — he’s the primary one with AMD to take action.
According to the BBC, about 500,000 individuals within the UK have AMD. And as many as 11 million individuals within the U.S. might have it.
“I think this could be the beginning of a new era for patients with sight loss,” Paulo Stango, the surgeon who led the four-hour operation stated.