Retinitis Pigmentosa

Bionic eye maker has vision of the future

Robert Greenberg got tired of hearing from senior engineers that it wasn't possible to build his product idea: a bionic eye that gives sight to the blind. "A lot of the folks straight out of school didn't know any better, ...

Medical research created May 06, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (6) | comments 1

The gene therapy renaissance: How experimental technique overcame a troubled legacy and is now helping the blind to see

(Medical Xpress)—In 1999, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania injected 19 people with a virus carrying a gene designed to correct a rare metabolic disease. Early results appeared promising: Among ...

Genetics created Apr 19, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Engineer invents bionic eye to help the blind

(Medical Xpress)—For UCLA bioengineering professor Wentai Liu, more than two decades of visionary research burst into the headlines last month when the FDA approved what it called "the first bionic eye for the blind." ...

Ophthalmology created Mar 25, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Reseachers develop holographic technique for bionic vision

Researchers led by biomedical engineering Professor Shy Shoham of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology are testing the power of holography to artificially stimulate cells in the eye, with hopes of ...

Medical research created Feb 26, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Retinal implants with wireless microchip restore functional vision in retinitis pigmentosa patients, research finds

(Medical Xpress)—Retina Implant AG, the leading developer of subretinal implants for patients blinded by retinitis pigmentosa (RP), announced results from part of its multicentre study were published today in the peer-reviewed ...

Ophthalmology created Feb 20, 2013 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Artificial retina receives FDA approval

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted market approval to an artificial retina technology today, the first bionic eye to be approved for patients in the United States. The prosthetic technology ...

Ophthalmology created Feb 14, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (9) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Bionic eye gives hope to the blind

After years of research, the first bionic eye has seen the light of day in the United States, giving hope to the blind around the world.

Ophthalmology created Feb 05, 2013 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (11) | comments 0

Altering eye cells may one day restore vision

(Medical Xpress)—Doctors may one day treat some forms of blindness by altering the genetic program of the light-sensing cells of the eye, according to scientists at Washington University School of Medicine ...

Ophthalmology created Jan 25, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

New stem cell approach for blindness successful in mice (w/ video)

(Medical Xpress)—Blind mice can see again, after Oxford University researchers transplanted developing cells into their eyes and found they could re-form the entire light-sensitive layer of the retina. 

Ophthalmology created Jan 08, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (10) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Two novel treatments for retinitis pigmentosa move closer to clinical trials

Two recent experimental treatments—one involving skin-derived induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell grafts, the other gene therapy—have been shown to produce long-term improvement in visual function in mouse models of retinitis ...

Ophthalmology created Dec 20, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Compound found in rosemary protects against macular degeneration in laboratory model

Herbs widely used throughout history in Asian and early European cultures have received renewed attention by Western medicine in recent years. Scientists are now isolating the active compounds in many medicinal ...

Ophthalmology created Nov 27, 2012 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (6) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Blind patient reads words stimulated directly onto the retina

For the very first time researchers have streamed braille patterns directly into a blind patient's retina, allowing him to read four-letter words accurately and quickly with an ocular neuroprosthetic device. ...

Neuroscience created Nov 22, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (7) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

New cells found that could help save people's sight

Eye experts and scientists at the University of Southampton have discovered specific cells in the eye which could lead to a new procedure to treat and cure blinding eye conditions.

Ophthalmology created Nov 08, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

$2 million prize announced for cure for blindness by 2020

Singer Art Garfunkel, a real estate magnate and an investor are putting $2 million in gold bullion on the line to inspire researchers to cure blindness by 2020, establishing through Johns Hopkins Medicine one of the world's ...

Ophthalmology created Oct 22, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

FDA recommends approval for Second Sight's Argus II retinal prosthesis system in the US

On Friday September 28, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Ophthalmic Devices Advisory Panel unanimously voted 19-0 that the probable benefit of the Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System outweighs the risks to health, ...

Ophthalmology created Oct 03, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0


Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is a group of genetic eye conditions that leads to incurable blindness. In the progression of symptoms for RP, night blindness generally precedes tunnel vision by years or even decades. Many people with RP do not become legally blind until their 40s or 50s and retain some sight all their lives. Others go completely blind from RP, in some cases as early as childhood. Progression of RP is different in each case.

RP is a type of progressive retinal dystrophy, a group of inherited disorders in which abnormalities of the photoreceptors (rods and cones) or the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) of the retina lead to progressive visual loss. Affected individuals first experience defective dark adaptation or nyctalopia (night blindness), followed by reduction of the peripheral visual field (known as tunnel vision) and, sometimes, loss of central vision late in the course of the disease.

This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.

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