Magnetic hope for controlling eye movements

Teams of doctors led by University College London and the University of Oxford have completed a pioneering study which used magnets to control eye movements caused by nystagmus.

Two magnets, which interact with each other to impede movement, were implanted in each eye. One attached to the bone at the bottom of the eye socket and another sutured to one of the extraocular muscles.

‘Fortunately, the force used for voluntary eye movements is greater than the force causing the flickering eye movements, so we only needed quite small magnets, minimising the risk of immobilising the eye,’ said UCL’s Professor Quentin Pankhurst, who led the design of the prosthesis.