RP patients to receive implant

Retina Implant, a German developer of sub-retinal implants for the visually impaired, is starting UK clinical trials in January 2011, having just published the results of its first clinical trial on 11 retinitis pigmentosa patients in Germany.

The peer-review study in Proceedings of the Royal Society B detailed how blind patients were able to recognise foreign objects and read letters to form words. The authors, including lead author Professor Eberhart Zrenner at University Eye Hospital Tuebingen, Germany, concluded that the sub-retinal implant of Retina Implant's microchip was successful in restoring useful vision in patients previously blind due to retinitis pigmentosa.

The first UK patients will be implanted in weeks by Professor Robert Maclaren, Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Oxford and a consultant retinal surgeon at the Oxford Eye Hospital, and Tim Jackson, a consultant retinal surgeon at King's College Hospital in London.