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Artificial Vision 2015

The International Symposium on Visual Prosthetics

27.11. - 28.11.2015, Aachen

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Surgical feasibility of wide-field dual-array suprachoroidal–transretinal stimulation (STS) prosthesis in middle-sized animals

Meeting Abstract

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  • Takeshi Morimoto - Dept of Applied Visual Science, Osaka University, Suita, Japan
  • H. Kanda - Dept of Applied Visual Science, Osaka University, Suita, Japan
  • T. Miyoshi - Dept. of Integrative Physiology, Osaka University, Suita, Japan
  • T.K. Lohmann - Dept of Applied Visual Science, Osaka University, Suita, Japan; Department of Ophthalmology, RWTH Aachen, University Hospital Aachen, Germany
  • T. Fujikado - Dept of Applied Visual Science, Osaka University, Suita, Japan

Artificial Vision 2015. Aachen, 27.-28.11.2015. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2016. Doc15artvis15

doi: 10.3205/15artvis15, urn:nbn:de:0183-15artvis151

Published: March 7, 2016

© 2016 Morimoto et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. See license information at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Outline

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Purpose: To investigate the surgical feasibility of implanting a newly developed wide-field dual-array suprachoroidal–transretinal stimulation (STS) prosthesis in healthy dogs and cats.

Methods: Two healthy dogs and three healthy cats were used in this study. The STS prosthesis consisted of two arrays with 25 to 49 electrodes. The dual arrays were implanted into a scleral pocket of each of two healthy beagle dogs and three healthy cats under systemic anesthesia. Color fundus photography and Optical coherence tomography (OCT) were performed postoperatively. The animals were euthanatized after the experimental period and the retinas were evaluated histologically.

Results: All the prostheses were successfully implanted without complications, and no serious complications occurred during the experimental period. The fixation of the implant was stable throughout the experimental period. Fundus photographs and OCT revealed no serious damage in the retina and choroid around the arrays. Histologic evaluations showed good preservation of the retina over the electrode array.

Conclusions: Implantation of a newly developed wide-field dual-array STS retinal prosthesis into a scleral pocket of animals is surgically feasible and can be performed without significant damage to the retina or the animal. These findings indicate that it might be possible to implant more STS electrode arrays to cover a larger area of the retina to activate a larger visual field.