The woman is the first UK patient to receive the new device as part of a Europe-wide clinical trial. It offers people with geographic atrophy (GA), the most common form of dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the hope of regaining some of their lost sight.

The procedure involves inserting a 2mm wide microchip under the centre of a patient’s retina, by surgically creating a trapdoor into which the chip is posted.

The patient uses special glasses, containing a video camera that is connected to a small computer attached to their waistband. The chip captures the visual scene projected by the glasses and transmits this to the computer.

retina implant

Image credit: Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms process this information and instruct the glasses to focus...