On March 24, 2015 a cutting-edge procedure was carried out by Dr. Gregg T. Kokame of the Hawaii Eye Surgery Center. This surgery comes two years later after the first bionic implant of a prototype conducted by researchers from Bionic Vision Australia. After the four-hour surgery a 72-year-old woman who had been blind for two years said that she had started to see shades of grey. Dr. Mark Humayu, Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Southern California and co-inventor of the Argus II implant was also present.

The patient was blind because of a genetic disease known as retinitis pigmentosa (RP). This disease is inherited and causes serious vision impairment owing to the progressive of the degeneration of the rod photoreceptor cells found in the retina. The sight of the woman has been restored only partially for now, but it is expected to improve as she is recovering. Dr. Kokame said that in about two months she will begin to see motion, notice when somebody walks in and out of the room and will also be able to distinguish different shades of grey. It will take her a week to fully recover. After this period she may be able to distinguish up to 9 colors.

Dr. Mark Humayan’s invention, the bionic eye is a system consisting of an implanted device and special type of glasses. Once the eye is implanted the glasses will capture images like a camera. The captured images are afterwards beamed back to the device for processing. Once the images are processed they will be transferred to the retina and directed to the optic nerve which will transport the information to the brain, where the image is identified.

The bionic eye was approved by FDA (US Food and Drug Administration) having the approximate price of $144,000. For now the operation only works for patients who have lost their sight only as a result of a certain hereditary disease, but Dr. Mark Humayan hopes that the device will evolve quickly enough and doctors will be able to apply it for other severe vision impairments caused by other factors.

The Eye Surgery Center of Hawaii is a surgery center specialized in ophthalmology and also a portfolio enterprise of SKAI Ventures. CEO of SKAI Ventures, Dr. Hank Wuh said that he is excited to bring such life-altering technology to Hawaii residents and all over the Asia-Pacific area.

Image Source: Jpms