FDA clears first implantable telescope for vision
WASHINGTON -- U.S. health officials have approved a first-of-its-kind technology -- a tiny telescope implanted into the eye -- to counter a leading cause of old-age blindness.
By magnifying the images they see, the Implantable Miniature Telescope aims to help people in the end stages of an incurable, creeping disease called age-related macular degeneration -- a loss of central vision that blocks reading, watching TV, eventually even recognizing faces.
It is implanted into one eye to ease that blind spot, while patients learn to use the other eye for peripheral vision.
Because of safety risks -- and the challenge of learning to see that way -- the Food and Drug Administration warned Tuesday that only patients 75 or older with severe macular degeneration who also have a cataract that needs removal will qualify.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
