Larry Greenemeier reports the development of mini-telescope implants that may save vision damaged by macular degeneration. Vision Care Ophthalmic Technologies, Saratoga, California, developed the device.

This is a good device and it offers hope for people with no other options," says lead author Kathryn Colby, an ophthalmologist and director of the Joint Clinical Research Center at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in Boston.

The optical prosthetics, tiny enough to be balanced on a fingertip, dramatically improved the vision of about two thirds of the 206 patients studied in a 24-month clinical trial.

Macular degeneration is a disorder of the central retina, or macula, that causes the afflicted person to see a dark spot in the center of his or her field of vision, impairing the ability to read, recognize faces, watch TV, and use mobile PCs.

Age-related macular degeneration affects more than 1.75 million Americans, a number projected to climb to almost three million by 2020 thanks to the country's rapidly aging population, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health's National Eye Institute.

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