ABSTRACT
There is currently no treatment for blindness due to neural diseases affecting the different parts of the visual system. These include a variety of conditions such as outer retinal damage secondary to age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and retinitis pigmentosa, inner retinal damage from severe diabetic retinopathy, and optic nerve disorders including glaucomatous optic neuropathy. Efforts to transplant photoreceptors and retinal pigment epithelial cells and gene therapy have not been successful to date (1-7). Recent advances in microtechnology, computer science, optoelectronics, and neurosurgical and vitreoretinal surgery have encouraged some researchers to investigate the feasibility of building a visual prosthesis to treat some of these disorders (8-27).
