Bionic eye to be sold in the USA soon

Here's hope for blind people around the world: the world's first bionic eye may soon be allowed to go on sale in the United States.

 

Dubbed the Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System, the eye has so far helped more than 60 people recover partial sight, Discovery News reported.

 

"It's the first bionic eye to go on the market in the world, the first in Europe and the first one in the U.S.," said Brian Mech, the California-based developer's vice president of business development.

 

Mech said Argus II is already available in several European countries for 73,000 euros ($99,120), and a US price may be slightly higher.

 

Expected to benefit from Argus II are people with retinitis pigmentosa, a rare genetic disease that affects some 100,000 people in the U.S.

 

Such a disease results in the degeneration of the retinal photoreceptors.

 

The Argus II has 60 electrodes implanted in the retina and glasses fitted with a special mini-camera.

 

It already earned the nod of European regulators, even as the US Food and Drug Administration is expected to similarly approve it soon.

 

In the device, photoreceptor cells convert light into electrochemical impulses that are transmitted to the brain via the optic nerve, where they are decoded into images.

 

Discovery News said some 30 blind people aged 28 to 77 had taken part in the clinical trial for the product.

 

"We had some patients who got just a little bit of benefit and others who could do amazing things like reading newspaper headlines," Mech said.

 

In some cases, the subjects could even see in color.

 

"Mostly they see in black and white, but we have demonstrated more recently we can produce color vision as well," he said. — TJD, GMA News