视觉假体——盲人复明的新希望

Visual prosthesis—a new hope for vision restoration

以原发性老年黄斑变性与视网膜色素变性为代表的神经性视网膜疾病目前仍然没有有效的手术或药物方法进行治疗。视觉假体是通过对视觉通路的某个位点施加电刺激来取代受损、病变的神经元,从而在一定程度上恢复盲人的功能性视觉的一种前沿技术。世界各国有多个研究小组正在采用不同的技术路线进行视觉假体研发,目前处于不同研发阶段。本文中,我们介绍国外各个研究小组和中国C-sight小组的最新视觉假体研发进展,并对视觉假体的商业化进程作简要介绍。

Severe retinal pathologies such as age-related macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa are still uncurable so far. A visual prosthesis is a device that can electrically stimulate a certain site on the visual pathway to replace the function of the diseased neurons, which has been proved a feasible approach to partially restore vision for blind patients. To date a number of various technical schemes by various groups in the world have been proposed and are currently at different stages of basic research or clinical trials. In this article we present recent progresses in visual prosthesis development of foreign research groups as well as that of the Chinese Project for Sight （C-sight） group in China. A breif introduction of progress in commercialization of visual prosthesis was also oresented.