Matilda Ziegler Magazine for the Blind the source for blindness news and information since 1907

By Anne Eisenberg © The New York Times — When disease destroys vital parts of the eye, causing degrees of blindness, scientists can sometimes replace damaged tissue with electronic implants that help patients see lines and basic shapes.  The tips of the implant’s electrodes, which help replace the work of diseased rods and cones, slide into a snug berth just below the retina. But as with any electrical connection, these implants must fit snugly and not jiggle or shake loose after a few months, like a drooping plug in a wall socket. Now groups of scientists have demonstrated retinal implants that they say will resist the jarring of daily use. The implant contains a tiny array of electrodes whose tips slide into a snug berth just beneath the retina, the nerve tissue lining the back of the eye, and are held in place by natural suction…. READ ARTICLE

By Jon Hamilton © NPR — Stem cells and electronics can help restore vision to people who’ve been blinded by retinal diseases, scientists reported in Chicago at Neuroscience 2009, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience. Diseases of the retina cause blindness by damaging the cells that line the back of the eye, where images of the world are normally transformed into nerve impulses that go to the brain. “There’s very little therapeutic treatment out there right now for people with diseased retinas,” says Brian Mech, a vice president of Second Sight Medical Products in Sylmar, Calif. But Second Sight is hoping to change that. The company has developed an experimental bionic eye that has been tried in more than 30 patients with macular degeneration or retinitis pigmentosa…. READ ARTICLE

By Rob Waters © Bloomberg — A miniature video camera in the center of his eyeglass frames and tiny electrodes implanted at the back of his right eye allow Dean Lloyd to see lights and shapes, more than 30 years after he lost his vision. Lloyd is one of 32 blind people testing the Argus II system from Second Sight Medical Products Inc., a closely held company based in Sylmar, California. Ten of 15 users of the device identified the direction of a moving line on a computer screen in a study presented today at a science meeting in Chicago…. READ ARTICLE