The potential of the second sight system bionic eye implant for partial sight restoration.

Introduction: Second Sight System bionic eye implant, a commercially available visual prosthesis developed by Second Sight Medical Products, has been implanted in over 125 patients with outer retinal dystrophies such as retinitis pigmentosa. The system has gained regulatory approval in both the USA and Europe, and aims to restore vision by electrical stimulation of the nerve cells of the inner retina.

Areas Covered: In this review, we present the safety profile of this implant from the international clinical trial and discuss the nature and levels of improvement in visual function achieved by patients implanted with the system.

The Argus(®) II Retinal Prosthesis System.

The Argus(®) II Retinal Prosthesis System (Second Sight Medical Products) is the first prosthetic vision device to obtain regulatory approval in both Europe and the USA. As such it has entered the commercial market as a treatment for patients with profound vision loss from end-stage outer retinal disease, predominantly retinitis pigmentosa. To date, over 100 devices have been implanted worldwide, representing the largest group of patients currently treated with visual prostheses.

The use of Argus® II retinal prosthesis by blind subjects to achieve localisation and prehension of objects in 3-dimensional space.

Background: The Argus® II retinal prosthesis system has entered mainstream treatment for patients blind from Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP). We set out to evaluate the use of this system by blind subjects to achieve object localisation and prehension in 3-dimensional space.

Methods: This is a single-centre, prospective, internally-controlled case series involving 5 blind RP subjects who received the Argus® II implant.