Three weeks after surgery, the patient can already distinguish light sources and primitive objects.
The first surgery under a new bionic vision restoration technology has been successfully performed in Russia. The patient is now undergoing rehabilitation in one of the FMBA centers. This was reported by the RF Health Minister, Veronica Skvortsova.
58-year-old Grigory Ulyanov from Chelyabinsk, who lost his eyesight about 20 years ago, was operated at the Otorhinolaryngology Scientific and Clinical Center of the FMBA. Now, three weeks after the surgery, according to the minister, he can already distinguish light sources and primitive objects. Other patients in the world achieve such successes in two to three months of rehabilitation.
"This device makes it possible for the eye to see information not in the way we are used to seeing it: it is black and white geometric vision”- the minister said.
Retinal implant, installed to the patient, is a high-tech complex consisting of glasses with a miniature video camera, a video signal processing unit and an electrostimulator - a retinal implant with 60 electrodes. "Our approaches make it possible to put quite a simple device of 60 pixels on the surface layer of the retina”, the minister said.
Grigory Ulyanov became the 41st patient in the world with an installed system of the kind. Other 300 people in the world have a simpler bionic system that can compose an image of 30 pixels.
According to Veronica Skvortsova, the development of the bionic technology along with regenerative medicine and tissue-and-cellular technologies is one of the most promising areas of the Russian healthcare system.
"A mechanism for putting the most innovative technologies into practice fast has been developed”,- she added. The minister also noted that this mechanism is fully financed from the state budget - this is called clinical approbation.