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...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature communications 2018-03, Vol.9 (1), p.992-15, Article 992
Main Authors: 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
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
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Acuity
Blindness
Curvature
Cytotoxicity
Humanities and Social Sciences
Humans
Implantation
Intraocular lenses
multidisciplinary
Photovoltaics
Prostheses
Prosthesis Design
Prosthesis Implantation - methods
Prosthetics
Retina
Retina - physiology
Retina - surgery
Retinal ganglion cells
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Visual acuity
Visual Acuity - physiology
Visual field
Visual fields
Visual Prosthesis
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Summary: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. Retinal prostheses are being developed to fight severe retinal diseases where wider visual field and higher visual acuity are desired. Here Ferlauto et al. design a foldable and wide-field epiretinal prosthesis that can meet the performance and safety requirements and show a long lifetime of 2 years.
ISSN:2041-1723
2041-1723
DOI:10.1038/s41467-018-03386-7