Medical Devices

3D-printed prosthetic eye tech to begin clinical trial in the UK

3D-printed prosthetic eye tech to begin clinical trial in the UK
A close-up of the prosthesis implanted on Nov. 25th in the eye socket of Steve Verze, "the first ever patient in the world to be supplied with a fully digital 3D printed prosthetic eye"
A close-up of the prosthesis implanted on Nov. 25th in the eye socket of Steve Verze, "the first ever patient in the world to be supplied with a fully digital 3D printed prosthetic eye"
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A close-up of the prosthesis implanted on Nov. 25th in the eye socket of Steve Verze, "the first ever patient in the world to be supplied with a fully digital 3D printed prosthetic eye"
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A close-up of the prosthesis implanted on Nov. 25th in the eye socket of Steve Verze, "the first ever patient in the world to be supplied with a fully digital 3D printed prosthetic eye"
Prosthesis recipient Steve Verse – the artificial eye is the one on the right
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Prosthesis recipient Steve Verse – the artificial eye is the one on the right

Ordinarily when someone requires a prosthetic eye, a mold has to be made of their eye socket, after which the prosthesis is built by hand. A new 3D printing system, however, is claimed to be much quicker, and to produce a more realistic-looking eye.

The technology was developed via a partnership between Germany's Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Research and British company Ocupeye.

Initially, a specially modified Tomey ophthalmic scanner is used to non-invasively perform a 2.4-second non-ionizing scan of the patient's empty eye socket. Utilizing Fraunhofer's Cuttlefish:Eye software, the scan data is then combined with a color-calibrated photo of the patient's remaining eye.

This results in a 3D computer model of the prosthetic eye, which is used to guide a multi-color, multi-material 3D printer as it prints the actual eye out of unspecified biocompatible materials. Once polished, the finished product is claimed to look more like a real eye than a typical handmade prosthesis – yet it's ready to go in a much shorter amount of time.

Prosthesis recipient Steve Verse – the artificial eye is the one on the right
Prosthesis recipient Steve Verse – the artificial eye is the one on the right

The technology will soon be trialled on approximately 40 patients at Moorfields Eye Hospital London. After initially being fitted with a custom 3D-printed eye, each participant will be examined at regular intervals over the course of a year. It is believed that just one printer could ultimately produce the 10,000 prostheses currently required in the UK on an annual basis.

"We hope the forthcoming clinical trial will provide us with robust evidence about the value of this new technology, showing what a difference it makes for patients," says Moorefields' Prof. Mandeep Sagoo. "It clearly has the potential to reduce waiting lists."

Source: Fraunhofer

2 comments
2 comments
c w
Prosthetic eye people, meet Princeton image-sensor-the-size-of-a-grain-of-salt people.
michael_dowling
c w Yes,I was thinking why not make this the perfect artificial eye by incorporating the ability to send video to the brain,making it a true replacement eye. The problem is that the resolution would be pretty coarse from what I recall reading,but hey,any image would help someone blind in one eye with depth perception.