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July 24, 2008 11:32:28 PM CDT

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UK Docs Implant Bionic Eyes

Posted Apr 21, 08 8:04 PM CDT in World,  Technology,  Science & Health 

(Newser) – British doctors have given two blind men bionic eyesight and say they will soon enjoy partial vision, the Telegraph reports. Using US technology, the surgeons inserted electrodes in the men's retinas last week. Studded on a metal plate, the conductors will be connected to a small eyeglass camera that enables users to see objects as blotches of light.

"Conceptually it could be used for anyone with extremely poor vision but a physically intact optic nerve," one of the surgeons said. "The sort of vision we are getting is not good quality but as the thing gets better it will open up to more and more people." Next, three European hospitals will try the surgery, and UK doctors hope to operate on another eight patients by year's end.

Sources: Daily Telegraph (UK), Guardian (UK), BBC

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Foreign doctors perform surgery on an eye of a Cambodian patient aboard a plane used as flying eye hospital in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2007.   (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)
A patient undergoes eye surgery in this undated file photo.   (KRT Photos)
A television monitor shows the eye as Dr. Jonathan Christenbury performs an IntraLasik surgery on Levin Williams in Charlotte, North Carolina, in December 2003.   (KRT Photos)
A patient undergoes corrective eye surgery in this undated file photo.   (Getty Images)
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