live without being plunged into darkness

In a previous article, we were talking about the first bionic eye implanted in the UK, on ​​an 80-year-old man with Age-Related Macular Degeneration. With the aim of helping people suffering from pigmentary retinitis, the German company Retina Implant, designed the Alpha IMS implant.

The 3x3mm3 microchip, composed of a grid of 1500 electrodes simulate the function of photoreceptors, light-sensitive sensory neurons, inside the eye. Thanks to this it is possible to reconstruct a black and white image. Unlike the Argus II, this device does not require the wearing of glasses equipped with a front camera, a radio transmitter and a box-type processing unit. The Retina Implant system includes the subretinal implant and a thin cable smart health connected to a small device hidden under a fold of skin behind the ear. The pulses received by the implant are transmitted to a chip placed inside the skull of the patient. This will translate the information it receives so as to change it into signals easily understood by the brain.

"Thanks to the device, it is possible to read large letters, grab objects, tools, recognize different people and even to see the cars approaching at night“, Explains Doctor Wrobel, CEO of the company Retina Implant, located in Germany. "The implanted person has an external box for him adjust contrast and brightness“, He continues. Founded in 2003 after years of research, Retina Implant aimed to goal of designing the first retinal implant electronics capable of helping blind and partially sighted people. It was in 2005 that the first patient to benefit from this technology was implanted, and in 2013 it obtained CE marking. The clinical results of Alpha IMS, in terms of vision and safety, were presented for the first time in 2014, on the occasion of the annual congress of the European Society of Retina Specialists (EURETINA), which was held in London.

More than encouraging results

The subretinal implant was implanted on 29 blind participants suffering from external retinal degeneration, relates the international journal Vision Research. The main criteria for the effectiveness of the study protocol were a significant improvement in daily living activities. Secondary endpoints, meanwhile, were significant improvement in visual acuity, light perception and / or object recognition. During the 12 months of observation, 21 participants, or 72%, reached the main evaluation criteria and 13 of them noticed the restoration of the visual function they use in everyday life. It has been noticed that the detection, location and‘Object identification was significantly better with the implant lit in the first three months. "To date, 49 patients have been implanted, some of whom have benefited“Says Dr. Wrobel.

"Our implant only targets individuals with retinitis pigmentosa“, Specifies the CEO of Retina Implant. Retinitis pigmentosa is usually manifests in adolescence, but can also occur from childhood. It results in a progressive degeneration of the retina due to a loss of rod and cone photoreceptors, leading to a night blindness, as well as progressive impairment of the visual field. Photoreceptor cells are directly sensitive to light, and convert it into nerve impulses processed by the retina before being directed to the brain by nerve fibers. Rod photoreceptors allow motion detection, as well as night vision. The cones, meanwhile, provide day vision. Their deterioration therefore leads to an irreversible loss of vision.

The call of SOS Rétinite France

"I was born with this pathology“, Explains Monique Roux, President and founder of the association SOS Rétinite France. "At the time, it was thought that I was a unique case. It was at 34 that I learned that I had retinitis pigmentosa. We often underestimate the importance of sight, when it is essential … When we are unable to see, it is dramatic, laments the president, try to put a blindfold on even one afternoon …”On September 30, 1986, SOS Retinitis was born, and in 1989 it generated a European multidisciplinary research center in ophthalmology in Montpellier, the European Center for Information and Research on Retinal Degeneration (C.E.I.R.D.R.). "It is totally unacceptable to let a person go blind!“, Castigates Monique Roux, who for 30 years has struggled to get things done in France. The device proposed by Retina Implant represents great hope for individuals suffering from this severe handicap, affecting nearly 40,000 people in France.

It is in Germany, currently much more ahead of this kind of technology, that Monique Roux meets Doctor Wrobel, with whom she works actively in order to be able to train surgeons in the installation of the implant, and offer the Alpha IMS device in France. The association SOS Rétinite France is currently launching a call to collect donations to allow the placement of the first implant on a French patient.

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