Key Points
For years, they had been losing their central visionwhat allows people to see letters, faces, and details clearly..
But after receiving an experimental eye implant as part of a clinical trial, some study participants can now see well enough to read from a book, play cards, and fill in a crossword puzzle despite being legally blind..
I dont think anybody in the field has seen videos like that before, he says.. Dubbed the Prima, the implant consists of a 2-mm square chip that is surgically placed under the retina, the backmost part of the eye, in an 80-minute procedure..
Hodak says the Prima differs from other retinal implants in its ability to provide form vision, or the perception of shapes, patterns, and other visual elements of objects..
Of the various chip implant technologies that have been tried over time, this is the one that seems like it has some legs to it, says Sunir Garg, an ophthalmologist at Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia and a clinical spokesperson for the American Academy of Ophthalmology who wasnt involved with the Prima study..
