gms | German Medical Science

Artificial Vision 2019

The International Symposium on Visual Prosthetics

13.12. - 14.12.2019, Aachen

Management of surgery-associated adverse events of Argus II retinal prosthesis system

Meeting Abstract

  • Kim Schaffrath - Department of Ophthalmology, University Hospital RWTH Aachen/D
  • T. Lohmann - Department of Ophthalmology, University Hospital RWTH Aachen/D
  • S. Baumgarten - Department of Ophthalmology, University Hospital RWTH Aachen/D
  • H. Schellhase - Department of Ophthalmology, University Hospital RWTH Aachen/D
  • P. Walter - Department of Ophthalmology, University Hospital RWTH Aachen/D

Artificial Vision 2019. Aachen, 13.-14.12.2019. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2019. Doc19artvis29

doi: 10.3205/19artvis29, urn:nbn:de:0183-19artvis296

Published: December 10, 2019

© 2019 Schaffrath 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

Text

Objective: Retinal degenerative diseases, e.g. retinitis pigmentosa, could lead to loss of vision and blindness. Treatment is still limited, but a new possibility to improve vision in late-state disease is implanting epiretinal prostheses, p.e. Argus II retinal prosthesis (Second Sight Medical Products, Sylmar, CA, USA). The device is CE and FDA approved.

Materials und Methods: The Argus II retinal prosthesis system consists of an extra- and intraocular part of the device. The extraocular part includes an encircling band with electronics and the intraocular part comprises the epiretinal array which is fixated using a retinal tack. At the end of the surgery biological patch grafts were used to cover the electronic cases and finally the complete closure of the conjunctiva were crucial. After implanting the Argus II retinal prosthesis system in more than 300 patients worldwide, there were periodic visits of the patients and we collected the surgery-associated adverse events (AE). Especially in Aachen, we analyzed the management of different severe AEs, e.g. conjunctival erosion.

Results: Conjunctival dehiscence, hypotony and endophthalmitis represented severe surgery-associated adverse events which could be reduced because of the refinement of the surgery and the device itself. But there are still some AEs, e.g. conjunctival erosion, retinal detachment and vitreous haemorrhage which occur. Their management is complicated and challenging.

Discussion: Implanting the Argus II prosthesis system and the use have delivered promising results for blind patients and have highlighted new challenges for the surgeons. By optimizing the surgical procedure and collecting the adverse events the management of the severe AEs will be improved.

Acknowledgment: The project was supported by Second Sight.