A telescopic implant to partially restore sight to people with senile maculopathy was implanted on three patients (two men and one woman, between 65 and 80 years old), assisted at the Agostino Gemelli University Hospital Foundation IRCCS by Professor Stanislao Rizzodirector of the Ophthalmology Unit of the Polyclinic and Ordinary of the Ophthalmology Clinic at the Catholic University, Rome campus.
The plant is called SING IMT ™ (Smaller-Incision New-Generation Implantable Miniature Telescope) and it seems in all respects a miniaturized Galilean telescope.
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Maculopathy afflicts over a million people in our country, 200-300,000 of whom are seriously ill. The macula is the central part of the retina, composed of cells, the photoreceptors, which transform a light stimulus into an electrical impulse that travels from the retina to the brain, in the area where vision is formed.
“The macula allows us to see details, to recognize the faces of our loved ones, to see colors and to read books or text messages on mobile phones, explains Professor Rizzo. It is made up of 9 layers of different cells and today we are not able to reconstruct it, nor to regenerate it (for example with stem cells), nor to transplant it, because it is too sophisticated “.
In the Western world, this pathology is the leading cause of blindness. Senile maculopathy can be dry-atrophic, with slow evolution and to date without therapies, or wet, more rapid and aggressive but which has had effective drugs for some years.
The first symptoms are image distortion and difficulty in reading. Up to now, the tools available were optical rehabilitation systems, which allow patients to exploit the parts of the macula that are still functioning by means of real semi-Galilean telescopic systems, enlarging the images.
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“The intraocular lens produced by Samsara Vision that we used a few days ago is nothing more than a miniaturized telescope that is implanted during a normal cataract surgery, instead of the opaque lens – continues Professor Rizzo – This telescopic system allows you to exploit the part of the macula still functioning “.
The intervention is indicated for dry atrophic forms or even for the results of a now inactive wet form that has given a permanent residual problem. But only for patients who need to be operated on for cataracts and not those who have an artificial lens already implanted.
The SING IMT ™ surgery is quite similar to a classic cataract surgery. “Compared to the traditional surgery – comments Professor Rizzo – only the width of the incision changes, which is 2 mm in the classic surgery and 7 mm in this one (this lens-telescope is foldable, that is foldable and expands once inserted, but is still thicker than a normal lens); for this it is necessary to put two or three sutures, which are then removed after a few weeks. The operation is carried out in Day Surgery and lasts 15-20 minutes. The patient is alert and conscious; anesthetic eye drops or a small peribulbar infiltration are used for anesthesia “.
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At the end of the operation, but also before for the selection of patients to be initiated for the operation, the orthoptists intervene for the rehabilitation phase. “The patient – continues Professor Rizzo – will have to rehabilitate his brain, to ‘teach’ him to use that part of the retina that is still functioning; this is carried out during six post-operative visual rehabilitation sessions, during which the orthoptist explains to the patient how to best use this system “.