To See Through The Eyes Of The Blind

Editorials News | Sep-13-2019

To See Through The Eyes Of The Blind

In the last several decades there has been a tremendous progress in the area of medical science, healthcare, research and medical technologies that have helped save lives, increase life expectancy, healthcare, childcare and treating many disorders and diseases that once were deemed incurable. Modern cardiology is an excellent example of the evolution of the scientific medicine. Major technical advances have lead to a better understanding of the physiology and pathology of the heart. Advanced surgical techniques that have been developed like coronary bypass surgery, balloon angioplasty, implantation of artificial pacemakers and the more advanced cardiac transplantation and heart and lung transplantation too have now become feasible. The list of progress is pretty extensive.

The same has happened in the field of Ophthalmology. Nearly 300 million people globally suffer some type of vision loss or blindness. However, good news is that the improved medical technology and breakthrough is not only making it easier for nearsighted and farsighted patients to see but it has paved ways of saving the visions of patients with diseases such as macular degeneration and glaucoma. At a more advanced level even certain types of blindness which were once thought to be incurable are now inching towards possible cure, like the bionic eye providing glimpses of light to those who only saw darkness once.
Scientist now are investigating new ways to provide visual signals to the blind by bypassing the eyeball entirely and sending message to the brain by stimulating the optic nerve with a new type of intraneural electrode called OpticSELINE. This procedure has been successfully tested in rabbits and the scientist believes that intraneural stimulation can be an effective and valuable solution for several neuroprosthetic devices for sensory and motor function restoration.
The idea has been developed by the researchers from Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) and Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna in Italy. The concept of this method is to produce phosphenes, or the sensation of seeing light directly. So how does it work? According to Diego Ghezzi from EPFL, "Cuff electrodes are surgically placed around the nerve, whereas intraneural electrodes pierce through the nerve, and electric current was delivered to the optic nerve via OpticSELINE and the brain's activity was measured in the visual cortex.
More than 39 million people around the globe suffer from blindness due to various reasons like genetics, trauma, glaucoma, cataract, stroke in the visual cortex, retinal detachment or inflammation and infection. If this new is proved successful in humans as it has in rabbits it will mean vision to a great number of people who seek to experience light and colors in their life.

By: Madhuchanda Saxena
Content:https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/08/190819112732.htm


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