A new system can give people who have gone blind their sight partially back. The system works using a camera, from which images are transmitted directly to the brain to patients' visual cortex.
The system is called Orion and has been developed by the company SecondSight. Orion is a technology developed to "give usable artificial vision to individuals who are blind due to a wide range of causes, including glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, optic nerve injuries and diseases, and eye injuries.
Converting camera images into electrical signals
Orion converts images taken by a small camera into electrical signals. This camera is attached to the patient's glasses. The signals are transmitted wirelessly to electrodes implanted directly into patients' visual cortex. This effectively makes the camera function as artificial eyes.
Six patients have now had the Orion technology implanted. Four patients have undergone surgery at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in the US Los Angeles, while two patients have been treated at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. The patients are five male and one female, with an average age of 48 years. The patients went completely blind due to various causes, including congenital glaucoma, head trauma, endophthalmitis and optic neuropathy.
Perceiving light phenomena
In these patients, the technology was implanted an average of 13 months ago. SecondSight now presents the results achieved in these patients. All patients appear to be able to perceive light phenomena (phosphenes) through the technology. After implantation, the perception threshold - the amount of energy required to create a light phenomenon that can be perceived by the patients - remained approximately the same during the measurement period.
Four patients were monitored to what extent they could locate objects and see movements. Three of the four patients were found to be better able to perceive a high-contrast object 12 months after Orion implantation with the system switched on than with the system switched off. An equally large group were found to be better able to determine the direction of moving high-contrast objects 12 months after implantation.
Side effects
However, the news is not exclusively positive; two out of six patients have been found to experience side effects with the technology, the severity of which varies. One patient, for instance, was affected by a stroke. As an example of a less serious side effect, SecondSight mentions headaches.
Will McGuire, president and chief executive officer of SecondSight, is pleased with the project's progress. "We are pleased with the continued progress being made in the Orion Early Feasibility Study with the six study participants. The first four patients have now been implanted for 12 months, and the participants appear to be making stable progress in their ability to perform daily tasks and meet the vision-related functional end goals for this study. Encouragingly, looking at the results achieved after 12 months with the similar Argus II feasibility study, participants in the Orion study are performing as well or better in most areas. Consider the Functional Low-Vision Observer Rated Assessment (FLORA). We look forward to continuing our collaboration with our researchers and further developing our Orion technology platform," McGuire said.
Author: Wouter Hoeffnagel
