Exciting results from the Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System (‘Argus II’) clinical trial, presented at the recent ARVO meeting, show significant improvements in vision for the blind subjects who are suffering from profound Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP).
The results from clinical trials held in 10 centres around the world over four years were presented at the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, Inc. (ARVO) 2011 Annual Meeting held early May in Fort Lauderdale.
Mark S. Humayun, MD, PhD, Professor of Biomedical Sciences, Professor of Ophthalmology, Biomedical Engineering, Cell and Neurobiology, Doheny Eye Institute, University of Southern California, presented the interim performance results from the Argus II Retinal Prosthesis trial which confirm previous reports of the ability of Argus II to provide visual function over the long-term.
“During the clinical trial we were pleased to observe the promising results of the system that revealed that all 30 subjects in the trial obtained visual perceptions from the device. A large majority of them experienced benefit from the system in terms of visual function tests that ranged from localising and identifying an object to grating visual acuity,” explained Professor Humayun.
In France, two patients fitted with the device were able to correctly read four word sentences…
He also reported on research conducted by Dr. Paulo Stanga, Consultant Ophthalmologist and Vitreoretinal Surgeon for the Manchester Royal Eye Hospital, Manchester, UK, that showed that subjects fitted with Argus II were able to consistently perceive colours.
Argus II is the first retinal prosthesis in which the feasibility of reading sentences with prosthetic vision has been demonstrated. In France, two patients fitted with the device were able to correctly read four word sentences.
