Visionary surgery a reality
There was a time not too long ago when Kiwi eye doctor Thiran Jayasundera would have to tell patients when they would lose their sight for ever.
Then he started bionic eyes.
Jayasundera, 42, is among the world’s finest retinal specialists presenting at next week’s Retina International World Congress in Auckland.
Auckland was home to Jayasundera just 10 years ago, before he left for the United States where he continued to develop the skills that led to ground-breaking surgery.
In January 2014, he and his team at the University of Michigan’s Kellogg Eye Centre did the United States’ first implantation of a bionic eye.
Patient Linda Schulte had been blind for 15 years after an inherited condition known as retinitis pigmentosa caused cells in the retina to slowly die.
In a 41⁄2 surgery, Jayasundera attached a 5mm computer chip worth about $200,000 to her retina.
He saw Schulte the day he spoke to the Herald on Sunday, and asked her husband, Paul, what difference it had made.
“He said, ‘one thing is, it has made her a happier person’.”
The happiness came through restored, restricted vision. For Jayasundera, it was fulfilment of the desire that led him to Auckland Medical School years earlier.
“I never imagined I would be doing this. I feel privileged.”
The Argus II — or bionic eye — sees 60 electrodes attached to the retina through which electrical impulses are sent.
The chip receives those impulses from a video camera attached to a pair of glasses.
The impulses send signals to the brain, giving limited vision.
In high contrast situations, it might be shapes, or a “sparkle” the brain recognises as a particular object.
“People are able to see the doorway, or to see pillars so they don’t bump into things so much.” implanting