Slashdot Mirror
Implantable Eye Telescope Finally FDA Approved
kkleiner writes "A telescopic implant that fits directly into the eye to treat certain kinds of blindness has finally received FDA approval for use in the US after more than five years of waiting. The Implantable Miniature Telescope (IMT) is used to treat age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a condition that affects millions around the world. For many, the center part of their vision becomes blurred or completely dark. The IMT is surgically implanted into the cornea and acts to expand an incoming image onto the peripheral parts of the retina that are undamaged by AMD. The commercial version of the IMT is called CentraSight and is in development by VisionCare Inc. There are likely hundreds of thousands of potential patients in the US alone who may be able to have their vision partially restored now that CentraSight has garnered FDA approval."
Does each set come with cool "DOO Doo doo doo doooooo..." sound effects and a Lindsay Wagner blow up doll?
Trolling is a art,
Before they can emit laser beams, but we're almost there, guys!
I know I'm not the only one expecting a device that would allow me to enjoy some backyard astronomy anytime, anywhere. I am very disappointed.
I want this with a burning red-light toggle!
I certainly didn't have the foresight to see this coming!
If implanted in a person with 20/20 vision, what would be the effects?
"Going to war without the French is like going deer hunting without your accordion." ~General Norman Schwarzkopf
Gadget binoculars!
"Quote me as saying I was mis-quoted." -Groucho Marx
That person would see much the same as the patients with AMD. That is to say a loss of vision in the central region of your visual range (in the case of a non-AMD person: because the telescope is in the way, if nothing else), and all vision that -would- have fallen into the central region instead being expanded out toward the outer regions, essentially giving you a ring or donut shaped view of the world.
The article also mentions that if the person with AMD still has a good eye as well, that eye would be left untreated to provide for peripheral vision. That implies that with the device, peripheral vision would also be, to an extent, lost.
Call me again when it's got at least 10x zoom.
Replacement:
Arms - Check
Legs - Check
Heart - Check
Hands - getting there
Eyes - getting there
My opinions are my own, and do not necessarily represent those of my employer.
Shouldn't the /. Bill Gates Borg icon appear on this story?
Surely there's plenty of countries who will fast track med-tech that the FDA always seems to drag their feet on. What's to stop a company from setting up shop on the Mexican border for the latest in treatment?
Why do I get an uncomfortable feeling about this?
Damn, that's horrible. The moral of the story is: Use Intel.
WTF am I doing replying to an AC at 5 A.M on a Friday night?
What if they have Intel? Have to keep things competitive.
Prologue:
In the constellation of Cygnus, there lurks a mysterious, invisible force: the black hole of Cygnus X-1....
Six Stars of the Northern Cross
In mourning for their sister's loss
In a final flash of glory
Nevermore to grace the night...
1.
Invisible to telescopic eye
Infinity, the star that would not die
All who dare to cross her course
Are swallowed by her fearsome force
Through the void
To be destroyed
Or is there something more?
Atomized...at the core?
Or through the Astral Door?
To soar...
2.
I set a course just east of Lyra
And northwest of Pegasus
Flew into the light of Deneb
Sailed across the Milky Way
On my ship, the "Rocinante"
Wheeling through the galaxies,
Headed for the heart of Cygnus
Headlong into mystery
The x-ray is her siren song
My ship cannot resist her long
Nearer to my deadly goal
Until the black hole
Gains control...
3.
Spinning, whirling,
Still descending
Like a spiral sea,
Unending...
Sound and fury
Drown my heart
Every nerve
Is torn apart...
Can anyone say were getting close to what Geordi La Forge had in the last Star Trek: Next Generation movie??
It sounds like this could be a treatment that (with some modification) could be used to treat folks with laser damage to their eyes (or any other damage caused by highly focused light.) In that case, the 'donut hole' would be fairly small. To some degree, I also wonder if defocusing an area that illuminates small blind spots might be advantageous - instrad of a blind spot, instead the person would have a blurry spot...
Be careful of your thoughts; they could become words at any minute...
This implant is a lot better than going blind.
But really what we want is stemcell therapies that restore the macula to a fully working retina without further complication. Especially if the stemcells come from the patient themself, without requiring a separate donor, or tissue banks.
--
make install -not war
I was hoping this was a treatment for presbyopia. I'd give a lot to be able to see as well as Chuck Yaeger did when he was in his teens.
go go gadget eye telescope!
Never antropomorphize computers, they do not like that
peripheral vision
Sometimes the jokes write themselves. :D
giving you a ring or donut shaped view of the world.
So not unlike the vision normally enjoyed by new brides and cops?
God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
"Honey, I think I'm going to bed now. Have you seen my lens cap?"
The way you're explaining this, that widget sounds more like a reflector than a telescope in the fact that it doesn't zoom what the eye sees but deflects it to a part of the eye that can interpret it.
~Syberz
I'd like to know just two teeny things:
1 - How much $$ for this fantabulous gadget?
2 - Is it going to be required as part of basic health insurance coverage? (If so, how about a 99% deductible.)
"There are likely hundreds of thousands of potential patients in the US alone"
Um, last I checked there were only ~300,000 people in the US, and I doubt that the vast majority of them are suffering from AMD. Yes, theoretically everyone is a potential patient I suppose, but that's still taking it a bit too far...
According to this site, the implant will cost 100 minerals as well as 100 gas.
> The visual field would soon 'look' fairly normal as neural plasticity
> made the peripheral visual system do the job of the central and integrate
> that into visual processing. There would be loss of visual and color
> acuity since the peripheral retina isn't as densely populated, and had
> very little chromatic visual receptors. Within weeks any differences
> noted would fade as what's being presented became to seem normal.
I sincerely doubt that. I can't even get used to the "wide angle lens"
effect of my eyeglasses. (Changing the focus to correct for myopia
changes the magnification.) I would *really* like lenses that correct
the focus without changing the magnification.
This "donut" thing sounds worse.
The IMT only works with AMD? But what if I'm using INTEL???
Jesus cries - really. The state of science reporting is beyond pathetic, it's a damn tragedy. This device isn't implanted into the CORNEA. The cornea is thin. The natural crystalline lens *inside* the eye is removed by the normal method (phaco - ultrasound plus suction) and then this is wedged in with a surgery that will make you pray to whatever ghods you love that you never ever get one of these diseases. My engineers made some of the very first of these devices Way Back When (it worked sorta kinda) and the current version (fifteen years later) of the device is a Good Thing if you already have significant vision loss from AMD. As to stem cell therapies for the retina... that's a ways off. If you have single eye corneal blindness from acid burns, we can harvest limbal stem cells from the other eye and make a real difference, but the retinal stem cell work is amazingly primitive. When it comes to bio interventions, we're still banging the rocks together...
L. Frank Baum's 1900 Wonderful Wizard of Oz novel was doing this long before Masamune Shrow's GITS series, FWIW. There are earlier references to men-made-golems, but Baum's Tin Man is really fitting here. He was a woodcutter who, due to the Wicked Witch's interference, was obliged to have piecemeal replacements incrementally crafted for every part of his body (save his heart, hence his discomfiture). The novels made much more of this than did the movie (there were more Tin Men, for example).
Am I the only one who read the title and thought "Go go gadget eyes!"?
I use a Cyrix WinChip, you insensitive clod!
I want my eyePhone, dammit.
yeah we knew that amd was shit. but it makes the user essentially BLIND?!!
thanks man, thanks for saving my eyesight.
Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
The moral of the story is: Use Intel.
They use IMTel (Implantable Miniature Telescope) to fight AMD.
It sounds like this could be a treatment that (with some modification) could be used to treat folks with laser damage to their eyes (or any other damage caused by highly focused light.) In that case, the 'donut hole' would be fairly small. To some degree, I also wonder if defocusing an area that illuminates small blind spots might be advantageous - instrad of a blind spot, instead the person would have a blurry spot...
It's better to have a blind spot. After a while your brain filters it out and you don't notice it unless you really try to look at something with that area. With a blurry spot you would have an annoying blurred patch larger than the damaged area, which again may be filtered out by your brain, resulting in a larger "blind spot". And you would have a chunk of plastic sticking out of your eyeball.
This is not the /. I have grown to know and love...
Where are all the "And I, for one, welcome our new [insert cleaver word] overlords" jokes!?
"If I have been able to see so far, It is because I went out and bought a damn binoculars" - Ze da Esquina