Design and validation of a foldable and photovoltaic wide-field epiretinal prosthesis

Laura Ferlauto, Marta Jole Ildelfonsa Airaghi Leccardi, Naïg Aurelia Ludmilla Chenais, Samuel Charles Antoine Gilliéron, Paola Vagni, Michele Bevilacqua, Thomas J. Wolfensberger, Kevin Sivula and Diego Ghezzi ()
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Laura Ferlauto: School of Engineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
Marta Jole Ildelfonsa Airaghi Leccardi: School of Engineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
Naïg Aurelia Ludmilla Chenais: School of Engineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
Samuel Charles Antoine Gilliéron: School of Engineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
Paola Vagni: School of Engineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
Michele Bevilacqua: School of Engineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
Thomas J. Wolfensberger: Fondation Asile des Aveugles
Kevin Sivula: School of Basic Science, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
Diego Ghezzi: School of Engineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Nature Communications, 2018, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-15

Abstract: Abstract Retinal prostheses have been developed to fight blindness in people affected by outer retinal layer dystrophies. To date, few hundred patients have received a retinal implant. Inspired by intraocular lenses, we have designed a foldable and photovoltaic wide-field epiretinal prosthesis (named POLYRETINA) capable of stimulating wireless retinal ganglion cells. Here we show that within a visual angle of 46.3 degrees, POLYRETINA embeds 2215 stimulating pixels, of which 967 are in the central area of 5 mm, it is foldable to allow implantation through a small scleral incision, and it has a hemispherical shape to match the curvature of the eye. We demonstrate that it is not cytotoxic and respects optical and thermal safety standards; accelerated ageing shows a lifetime of at least 2 years. POLYRETINA represents significant progress towards the improvement of both visual acuity and visual field with the same device, a current challenging issue in the field.

Date: 2018
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-03386-7

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