In Britain, doctors transplanted an artificial eye of an American company to a person

Surgeons from the Manchester Royal Clinic for Surgery of the Eye, for the first time in history, transplanted a bionic eye prosthesis to a patient with ordinary macular dystrophy.

Macular degeneration is a general name for a group of diseases that damage the retina of the eye and impair central vision. It is the most common cause of blindness in developed countries.

Previously, the Argus II implant, developed by the American company Second Sight, was used only to help patients with a rare disease known as retinitis pigmentosa.

The first patient to whom technology helped overcome senile blindness was eighty-year-old Briton Ray Flynn. In the past, Flynn has complained that his central vision has virtually disappeared as he ages. The Manchester United fan's biggest regret was that he could no longer watch football on TV.

The operation on the implantation of an eye prosthesis lasted four hours. Now Flynn is under the supervision of doctors, who note the rapid recovery of the patient’s vision.

“The speed with which Mr. Flynn is recovering is truly amazing. He can already clearly distinguish the silhouettes of people and objects,” said clinic surgeon Paulo Stranga, who performed the operation.

“I think this could be the start of a new era for people with vision loss,” Stranga added.

The Argus II bionic implant receives visual information from a miniature camera built into special glasses. The prosthesis converts the “picture” into a series of electrical impulses that wirelessly transmit information to electrodes attached to the retina.