Surgeons have used a robot to operate inside the eye and restore sight – in a world first.
A team at Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital used the device, controlled via a joystick, to remove a membrane one hundredth of a millimetre thick.
Prof MacLaren said: “There is no doubt in my mind that we have just witnessed a vision of eye surgery in the future.
“We can certainly improve on current operations, but I hope the robot will allow us to do new more complex and delicate operations that are impossible with the human hand.”
Oxford is among several centres around the world which are trialling retinal gene therapy – a new treatment to prevent blindness.
Currently this treatment is done by hand, and further interventions involving stem cell injections are planned which require cells to be slowly infused into the eye.
The robot should allow surgeons to inject cells under the retina over a period of 10 minutes, something which would be impossible with the human hand.