TowardPi Microscope Successfully Aids Retinal-Pathway Visual BCI Implantation!

Recently, Professor Shen Lijun’s team at Zhejiang Provincial People’s Hospital successfully performed a clinical trial surgery to implant a 320-resolution retinal-pathway visual brain-computer interface (BCI) in a 40-year-old patient with retinitis pigmentosa who was nearly blind in both eyes.
Led by Dr. Chen Yiqi, the entire implantation was guided by TowardPi ophthalmic surgical microscope equipped with built-in full-range swept-source OCT technology for precise positioning.
"The difficulty of this surgery mainly lies in two aspects," said Dr. Chen Yiqi. "First, the positioning must be extremely precise. The electrode chip needs to be implanted directly into the macula, the core visual functional area of the patient. If there is any deviation, the functional improvement will fall far short of the ideal. Second, the retinal tissue is incredibly thin—only about 350 micrometers. Since neural tissue cannot regenerate, any damage would result in permanent loss of function."
Currently, the patient can successfully distinguish letters such as L, C, H, and R, accurately grasp objects, and walk independently, marking a significant improvement in her daily living abilities. TowardPi is immensely proud to have provided precise navigation assistance for this milestone, highly complex surgery.