Saratoga-based company launches vision study

VisionCare Inc., a Saratoga-based medical device company that specializes in implantable ophthalmic devices, is conducting a study that could lead to more age-related macular degeneration patients regaining their sight.

In January, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the company’s clinical study on the safety of implantable miniature telescopes on end-stage, age-related macular degeneration patients who already have cataract or other corneal surgery patients.

The American Association of Ophthalmology reported that the study, approved in January, will inform doctors about the “effectiveness and the appropriate surgical technique for implanting the telescope in patients who have had cataract surgery before.”

“We just did our first case,” VisionCare CEO Blake Michaels told the Saratoga News this month. “We have a couple more scheduled next month, so we’re just starting. But we’re excited about it because that would bring this to a much greater potential amount of people.”

The doctor who performed the first surgery of the trial in Memphis on Aug. 29, Dr. Subba Gollamudi, reported in a press release that the surgery was completed without complications. An FDA website, clinicaltrials.gov, states that a total of 75 patients will be studied over the course of three years.

Age-related macular degeneration, or AMD, is the leading cause of vision loss that affects as many as 15 million Americans and millions more worldwide.

“If you think of your eye like a camera, the macula is where we get our high m-definition vision,” Dr. Sam Garg, an Irvinebased surgeon who performs telescope implants through VisionCare’s treatment program, CentraSight, explained “So macular degeneration is a degeneration of that area, and if your vision is beyond a certain point, no matter with glasses or cataract surgery, you can’t improve that vision.”

The device works in the same fashion as telescopes that are used to look at stars, except on a much smaller scale. This peasized device magnifies the image that the patient sees by 2.7 times. About 650 patients who have never had cataract surgery have already received the company’s telescope implant.

For more information about the study, visit visioncareinc.net.