Abstract
Purpose :
Newly approved epiretinal prosthesis Argus II had been questioned about the safety of its penetrating retinal tacks. A noval vitreous substitute material, foldable capsule vitreous body (FCVB) might be a new approach to epiretinal prosthesis fixation.
Methods :
A healthy adult cat was used to evaluate the proposed idea. All animal procedure conducted was in compliance with the "Statement for the Use of Animals in Ophthalmic and Vision Research" found on the ARVO website. The epiretinal implant, which including an intro-ocular chip with 60 electrodes and a periocular antenna, was developed and manufactured by Sibionics co. Ltd. The FCVB was developed and manufactured by Vesber co. Ltd. After anesthesia, the right eye of cat was conducted pars plana vitrectomy and implanted with the intro-ocular chip as well as FCVB. Fundus was examined after surgery. Then, electrode impedance and electronic evoked potential (EEP) under craniectomy were tested immediately.
Results :
The co-implantation of the epiretinal chip and the FCVB was through a 6-mm incision, 2 mm posterior to the limbus. The whole procedure did not cause severe complication. Fundus examinatation showed that the chip was fixed around 1PD temporal to optic papilla. Stable electrode impedance data was acquired from 54 electrodes. Mean electrode impedance of them was 17783.33+/-18523.72 KOhm. The EEP was recorded in one electrode (#F10) under 1Hz electrical stimulation, with 3MS pulse width and 100 uA electrical current.
Conclusions :
The study was a preliminary attempt in seeking an alternative fixation way to epiretinal prosthesis implantation. The primary results showed that the co-implantation of FCVB with epiretinal chip might be practicable not only in fixation but also in electronic stimulation efficiency. Further animal experiments are needed.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2018 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Honolulu, Hawaii, April 29 - May 3, 2018.