Ophthalmology Archives

Mass Device has interviewed the CEO of SENSIMED AG, a company out of Lausanne, Switzerland that has developed a contact lens capable of continuously measuring intraocular pressure. The lens is composed of a strain gauge and a microchip to process the data off the instrument. The patient also wears an antenna array around the eye socket that powers the lens and reads the information coming off the microchip. Clinicians can then assess an entire day’s worth of patient’s intraocular pressure back at the clinic. We’ve written about the development of the contact lens before, but we must have missed last February’s European approval of the SENSIMED Triggerfish® system.
Triggerfish system components:

Sensor: Soft, hydrophilic silicone disposable contact lens embedding a MEMS sensor and a telemetry microprocessor. The sensor comes in three different base curves. All elements embedded in the lens are excentric, out of the line of sight.

Antenna and datacable: A circular antenna taped around the eye which sends energy to the sensor and receives the measurement information. The antenna is connected to the portable recorder through a thin flexible datacable.

Recorder: A battery powered recorder which will store measurement information and wirelessly upload this information on the ophthalmologist’s computer at the end of the monitoring session.

Software: The software running on the ophthalmologist’s computer to retrieve and to visualize the intraocular pressure profile.

Product page: SENSIMED Triggerfish…
Link: Mass Device interview with CEO of Sensimed AG…
Flashbacks: Sensimed Technology: Noninvasive Intraocular Pressure Monitoring with a Contact Lens; Pressure Sensing Contact Lenses May Provide Continuous Glaucoma Monitoring

VisionCare Inc., now out of Saratoga, California, is reporting that the “FDA Ophthalmic Devices Advisory Panel unanimously recommended that the FDA approve, with conditions, the premarket application (PMA) for its implantable telescope for End-Stage AMD.” We have been reporting about this device, designed for advanced macular degeneration, since 2005 when it was in Phase II/III clinical trials. The fresh news will probably pave way for bionic geriatrics in the next few years.
From the product page:

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Three blind patients at the UK’s Moorfield eye hospital have been fitted with a bionic vision system from 2nd Sight Medical . The system, covered by us previously, captures light in a video camera, and wirelessly sends it to an electrode implanted in the eye. One of the patients the BBC spoke to is reporting seeing basic light signals.
Here’s an explanation of the system from BBC:

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Sympathetic ophthalmia is an autoimmune condition thought to be caused when one eye is severely damaged, and the immune system overreacts and attacks the healthy eye, often leading to complete blindness. Until recently the common treatment option was oral steroids and immunosuppressive medication, but now clinicians at the University of Iowa are using a steroid releasing implant from Bausch & Lomb to prevent such a form of blindness.
University of Iowa reports:

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An Oxford University physics professor Dr. J D Silver has developed water filled glasses that have a variable optical strength thanks to a small pump dial. The idea is that the services of an optician would not be needed since “the wearer can adjust the power of each lens to his or her own requirements.”
From the technology page at Adaptive Eyecare, the manufacturer of the device:

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The FDA has given compassionate approval to use NeoVista‘s Epiretinal Brachytherapy (a procedure that is presently in Phase III studies) to treat a woman’s wet-AMD (age-related macular degeneration). The company hopes that its NeoVista Epi-Rad 90™ Ophthalmic System one day will become a therapeutic option for patients with wet-AMD. John N. Hendrick, President and CEO of NeoVista says, “Even though this patient has not benefited from currently approved therapies, our hope is that she will benefit from our treatment as a final effort to avoid complete loss of vision.”
From a NeoVista, Inc. press release:

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Researchers at the University of Bristol have developed a new diagnostic modality to monitor the retina, a technique that produces high resolution color images like the ones above.

Using the new technique called ‘TEFI’ (Topical Endoscopic Fundal Imaging), Professor Andrew Dick, David Copland and the team from the University of Bristol’s Academic Unit of Ophthalmology, monitored changes in mice retina over time, without distress to the animals or the need for anesthesia.

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A group of Australian institutions, including the University of Melbourne, the University of New South Wales, the Bionic Ear Institute, Centre for Eye Research Australia and the Victoria Research Laboratory of NICTA, are joining forces to work together on creating a functional bionic eye that would restore vision to those with degenerative or inherited eye disease.
The new consortium, called Bionic Vision Australia, reports:

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