In a groundbreaking new procedure a tiny telescope implanted into the eye of a patient has allowed her to read for the first time in seven years.
The Daily Mail reports that 89 year old Dorothy Bane of northern California has recently received a groundbreaking procedure to return her sight after losing it to end-stage age-related macular degeneration (AMD), one of the leading causes of blindness in elderly people. By having a telescope the size of a pea implanted into her eye to focus images on undamaged portions of her retinas she can not only read once again for the first time in seven years but see colors more clearly and even read large print without her glasses.
Doctors view this procedure as a landmark success for treatment that could become common place in the future for those suffering from AMD or similar diseases. Essentially this can once again restore sight to many of those who have long ago lost hope of ever having it again.
Receiving an implant requires some re-training of users to learn how to deal with the sight differences once again (especially since the implant was only placed into one eye as it has limited peripheral vision), however the benefits of having it verses not have made the trade-off well worth it for Dorothy Bane.