Subretinal Implants

After examining the various types of retinal implants, the subretinal implant appears to be the best choice. Unlike the epiretinal and hybrid implants, the subretinal does not have any external devices. The majority of patients tend to feel more comfortable about having operations if they will appear the same afterwards; it feels more normal for patients to have only internal devices. The subretinal implant appears more normal and functions closer to how a healthy retina actually functions.

In a subretinal implant light is taken from the environment directly, similar to how a healthy retina does. The light received is then converted into electrical signals which stimulate the cell layers that are still capable. Unlike the subretinal, the epiretinal implant uses a sensor to encode information as electrical impulses; thus making the epiretinal implant more complex than is necessary. Not only is the epiretinal implant more complex in its information processing, but it is much more difficult to fix. Although the hybrid retinal implant appears to be an idea that could function well as it combines some of the better aspects of other retinal implants, there is not sufficient experimental data for me to support the implant. The implant that is most similar to an actual retina is the subretinal implant; therefore it is more likely to have better results because it uses the biological functions available.

References:
http://www.opticsreport.com/content/article.php?article_id=1007
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/295/5557/1022
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/6569/17543/00812432.pdf?arnumber=812432