Written by: Rahul
11/11/2011 4:56 PM

Millions of Indians suffer from loss of vision due to retinal damage or due to age related macular degenration. Till now there was not much hope for such patients however a new global project led by Dr Rajat N Agarwal, Assisstant Professor of Clinical Opthalmology at the University of Southern California, has successfully deployed a bionic eye in such cases.

Dr Agarwal used to earlier work as retina specialist at Sankara Netralaya, Chennai. The visual device uses eyeglasses fitted with digital cameras and a retinal implant. The cameras built into a pair of glasses convert images into electrical impulses. Images are processed through video processing microchip and sent to a radio transmitter in the glasses, which in turn sends the pulses to the receiver implanted under the eye. This information is then passed on to the brain as an image through the optical nerve. Each electrode gives a perception of a spot of light. When multiple electrodes are stimulated, subject is able to sense shape and size too.

It has been successfully tried on 37 patients suffering from retinitis pigmentosa (a disease caused by damage to the retina) in Europe, and the patients have shown improvements in daily activities and some can now even read large letters. Dr Agarwal is now collaborating with AIIMS and IITs to bring down the cost of this implant from Rs 45 lakh to approx Rs 5 lakh for the benefit of millions of patients in India.

Dr R V Azad, chief of retina services and professor of Opthalmology at AIIMS confirmed that he had been contacted to participate in the new project.

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