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July 30, 2010
Doctors restore sight to the blind with artificial retinas
Published: 19 Dec 09 12:08 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/sci-tech/20091219-24045.html
German doctors are restoring partial sight to blind people by grafting microchips covered with photocells onto the backs of their eyes in a major medical breakthrough, news magazine Der Spiegel reported on Saturday.
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In a preview of its Monday edition, Spiegel quoted the medical team as saying that one patient, a 45-year-old Finnish patient named Miika, had improved to such an extent that he was no longer considered legally blind.
“With Miika, we can show that, with the help of the optical prosthesis, he has crossed the boundary beyond which he is no longer regarded as legally blind,” said the research leader, Eberhart Zrenner.
The technique involves grafting tiny microchips, measuring 3mm by 3mm and housing more than 1500 photo cells, onto the patients’ retinas.
The implantation requires a delicate, four-hour operation.
“The body tolerates the implant well,” said Zrenner. “We haven’t seen any serious problems such as inflammation.”
However the optical chips had to be removed after a few weeks according to the requirements of the university’s medical ethics committee.
Zrenner, who has founded a company called Retina Implant, told the magazine that in the coming year his team could fit about two dozen patients with new, wireless chips that could stay permanently under the retina.
DPA/The Local (news@thelocal.de)
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Your comments about this article:
One point shocked me... the chip will be removed due to requirements of the ethical comittee ............ maybe it was good meant, but isn´t this cruel to the involved patient to give him/her sight for a few weeks and then say due to ethics we will take it away again.
Can someone from this field enlighten us as to the yes´s & no´s of such ethic decisions.