A team of specialists at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford are trialling a bionic eye implant in six patients with little or no sight. If the trial is successful, the team hope that the technology could one day be applied to other eye diseases such as macular degeneration.

The first recipient of the implant is 49-year-old Rhian Lewis from Cardiff who, as a toddler, was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa. The condition worsened until, 16 years ago, she lost all the sight in one eye and most of the sight in the other. Her progress with the new implant was dramatically charted in an episode of the BBC series ‘Trust Me, I’m a Doctor’ in January of this year.

Both Rhian and the surgical team are delighted with the early results, and if the remaining five trialists have equal success with the 3mm sq. implant, it is possible that the treatment could become available on the NHS.

Sources:

1. BBC:
   The bionic eye changing a woman's life.
2. The Telegraph:
   Blind mother with 'bionic eye' tells of her joy at being able to tell the time.