Electric treatment ‘restores lost sight’

TREATMENT using an electric current could help restore vision to up to half a million Britons, scientists claimed yesterday.

They tested the brain pulse treatment on glaucoma patients and said it massively improved their sight and quality of life.

After just ten days, many of them were able to walk unassisted, see distant objects and read books.

Glaucoma sufferers have blurred vision that worsens with age. But the German scientists found that daily pulses of electricity into their brains for ten days help repair optic nerves and restores sight.

The Magdeburg University team studied 82 patients of whom 45 had the treatment. Tests showed their vision improved by an average of 24 per cent.

Their sight was less blurred and they were able to read small writing again.

Dr Bernhard Sabel, lead researcher of the study published in PLOS One, said the technique was so effective it should be routinely offered by hospitals.

‘ This can partially restore vision in patients with stable vision loss caused by optic nerve damage,’ he said. He added that

‘Clinically safe and effective’

the treatment was safe, effective and ‘clinically meaningful’.

Known as alternating current stimulation, it involves attaching four electrodes around a patient’s eyes. Doctors switch on the current for around 50 minutes, making the brain better able to decipher information travelling down the damaged optic nerve.

Currently, glaucoma patients can have treatment to prevent future sight loss, but there was nothing available to repair existing damage.

An estimated 500,000 patients in England and Wales have glaucoma. The condition occurs when fluid is not properly drained from the eye, causing damage to the optic nerve, which connects the eye to the brain.