Cargando…

Design and validation of a foldable and photovoltaic wide-field epiretinal prosthesis

Retinal prostheses have been developed to fight blindness in people affected by outer retinal layer dystrophies. To date, few hundred patients have received a retinal implant. Inspired by intraocular lenses, we have designed a foldable and photovoltaic wide-field epiretinal prosthesis (named POLYRET...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Ferlauto, Laura, Airaghi Leccardi, Marta Jole Ildelfonsa, Chenais, Naïg Aurelia Ludmilla, Gilliéron, Samuel Charles Antoine, Vagni, Paola, Bevilacqua, Michele, Wolfensberger, Thomas J., Sivula, Kevin, Ghezzi, Diego
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5843635/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29520006
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-03386-7
Descripción
Sumario:Retinal prostheses have been developed to fight blindness in people affected by outer retinal layer dystrophies. To date, few hundred patients have received a retinal implant. Inspired by intraocular lenses, we have designed a foldable and photovoltaic wide-field epiretinal prosthesis (named POLYRETINA) capable of stimulating wireless retinal ganglion cells. Here we show that within a visual angle of 46.3 degrees, POLYRETINA embeds 2215 stimulating pixels, of which 967 are in the central area of 5 mm, it is foldable to allow implantation through a small scleral incision, and it has a hemispherical shape to match the curvature of the eye. We demonstrate that it is not cytotoxic and respects optical and thermal safety standards; accelerated ageing shows a lifetime of at least 2 years. POLYRETINA represents significant progress towards the improvement of both visual acuity and visual field with the same device, a current challenging issue in the field.