Bionic eye that restores sight to the blind is made available on the NHS: £150,000 device uses tiny video camera to transmit images to a chip on the back of the eyeball The system beams images to patients who have been blind for decades NHS England will fund the Argus II for ten patients in a 12-month pilot scheme The group will be assessed before officials decide whether to roll it out in 2019 Up to 320 suffering retinitis pigmentosa are in line to benefit from the system A bionic eye which restores sight to blind people is to be made available on the NHS for the first time. The £150,000 system beams images from a tiny video camera to a chip implanted at the back of the eye, allowing patients who have been blind for decades to see again. Up to 320 people in Britain with retinitis pigmentosa – an inherited disease that causes blindness – could eventually benefit from the Argus II system. NHS England will fund it for ten patients in a 12-month pilot starting next month. They will then be assessed for a year before officials decide whether to roll the system out more widely in early 2019. Experts at Manchester Royal Eye Hospital and London's Moorfields Eye Hospital have trialled Argus II on ten patients over the past eight years with remarkable results. Keith Hayman, 68, a grandfather of five from Fleetwood in Lancashire, was fitted with the bionic eye in August 2009. Mr Hayman had been completely blind for 25 years after developing retinitis pigmentosa and had to give up work as a butcher in his 40s. 'Having spent half my life in darkness, I can now tell when my grandchildren run towards me and make out lights twinkling on Christmas trees,' he said. 'I would be talking to a friend, who might have walked off and I couldn't tell and kept talking to myself. 'This doesn't happen any more, because I can tell when they have gone. 'These little things make all the difference to me.' The bionic eye works by using special glasses that take video of the scene, and then send messages into an implant in the patient's eye. Over time, patients learn how to decipher these messages to see the outlines of objects, in black and white Argus II works by transferring video images, captured by a camera in special spectacles, into electrical impulses that can be read by the brain. The electronic signals are sent wirelessly to electrodes placed over the damaged cells at the back of the retina. The impulses stimulate the retina's remaining cells, resulting in the perception of patterns of light in the brain. The patient then learns to interpret these visual patterns. Most patients see them as sparks or flashing lights, where previously they would have seen nothing. They are able to make out shapes, such as people or objects, and in the most successful cases have been able to read letters two inches tall. Retinitis pigmentosa is an incurable disease, in which the retina at the back of the eye stops working. There are an estimated 16,000 sufferers in the UK, 10 per cent of whom cannot count the fingers on their hand. Between 160 to 320 of these would benefit from Argus II, experts think. Partially sighted pensioner Raymond Flynn, 80, from Audenshaw, Manchester, had his central vision restored for the first time in nearly a decade after he received a 'bionic eye' Professor Paulo Stanga, consultant ophthalmologist at Manchester University, said the provision of the system on the NHS was a milestone for medical science. 'This is the first and only available treatment for patients who are completely blind to be approved by the NHS,' he said. 'I'm delighted that our pioneering research has provided the evidence to support NHS England's decision to fund the bionic eye for the first time for patients.' Dr Jonathan Fielden, deputy national medical director of NHS England, said: 'This highly innovative NHS-funded procedure shows real promise and could change lives.' Professor Stanga is also trialling the system, developed by US firm Second Sight Medical Products, among patients with age-related macular degeneration, a much more common visual problem, although those trials are at an earlier stage. Source
