{"id":34391,"date":"2025-04-22T15:39:08","date_gmt":"2025-04-22T19:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fusfoundation.org\/?post_type=sw_disease_condition&#038;p=34391"},"modified":"2025-09-04T16:09:36","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T20:09:36","slug":"blindness","status":"publish","type":"sw_disease_condition","link":"https:\/\/www.fusfoundation.org\/diseases-and-conditions\/blindness\/","title":{"rendered":"Blindness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-focused-ultrasound-therapy\">Focused Ultrasound Therapy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Focused ultrasound is a rapidly evolving, therapeutic technology that could transform the quality of life and decrease the cost of care for patients that are blind. This novel technology focuses beams of ultrasound energy precisely and accurately on targets deep in the body without damaging surrounding normal tissue.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>How it Works<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>Where the beams converge, focused ultrasound produces several therapeutic effects that are being evaluated. This is an involved process and typically includes prosthetic devices such as a retina, optic nerve and cortex. There has been work done in rat models using both high and low intensity focused ultrasound to stimulate vision. The mechanism of action is not clear, but the combination of focused ultrasound with the retinal prosthesis has given hope that one day in the future this will be a viable option for those who have lost their sight. While significant work has been accomplished, there is still much to be done before this technology will be widely available.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Advantages<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Focused ultrasound is non-invasive, so it does not carry added concerns like surgical wound healing or infection.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Focused ultrasound can reach the desired target without damaging surrounding tissue.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It can be repeated, if necessary.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-clinical-trials-nbsp\">Clinical Trials&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>At the present time, there are no clinical trials recruiting patients for focused ultrasound treatment of blindness.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Foundation updates these pages regularly, but with the increasing number of clinical trials, we want to be sure that our audience has the latest information available. Therefore, we also added the website search information for the above trials. If you click <a href=\"https:\/\/clinicaltrials.gov\/search?cond=Vision&amp;term=focused%20ultrasound&amp;aggFilters=status:not%20rec\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>here<\/strong><\/a>, it will take you to the latest information available from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clinicaltrials.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>https:\/\/www.clinicaltrials.gov\/<\/strong><\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-regulatory-approval-and-reimbursement-nbsp-nbsp\">Regulatory Approval and Reimbursement&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Focused ultrasound treatment for blindness is not yet approved by regulatory bodies or covered by medical insurance companies.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-notable-papers-nbsp\">Notable Papers&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Lu G, Gong C, Sun Y, Qian X, Rajendran Nair DS, Li R, Zeng Y, Ji J, Zhang J, Kang H, Jiang L, Chen J, Chang CF, Thomas BB, Humayun MS, Zhou Q . <a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/38802397\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Noninvasive imaging-guided ultrasonic\u202fneurostimulation\u202fwith arbitrary 2D patterns and its application for high-quality\u202fvision\u202frestoration<\/strong><\/a>. Nat Commun. 2024 May 27;15(1):4481. doi: 10.1038\/s41467-024-48683-6. PMID:\u202f38802397\u202f&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Badadhe JD, Roh H, Lee BC, Kim JH, Im M. <a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/35990889\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Ultrasound stimulation for non-invasive visual prostheses<\/strong><\/a>. Front Cell Neurosci. 2022 Aug 3;16:971148. doi: 10.3389\/fncel.2022.971148. eCollection 2022. PMID:\u202f35990889&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Italiano ML, Guo T, Lovell NH, Tsai D. <a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/35609556\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Improving the spatial resolution of artificial\u202fvision\u202fusing midget retinal ganglion cell populations modeled at the human fovea<\/strong><\/a>. J Neural Eng. 2022 Jun 8;19(3). doi: 10.1088\/1741-2552\/ac72c2. Italiano ML, Guo T, Lovell NH, Tsai D.PMID:\u202f35609556&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/?term=(%22focused%20ultrasound%22%20OR%20%22HIFU%22%20or%20%22LOFU%22%20or%20%22neurostimulation%22)%20and%20%22vision%22&amp;sort=date&amp;page=3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong><strong>Click<\/strong> here<\/strong><\/a><strong>\u202ffor additional references from PubMed.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"sw_disease_condition_cat":[27],"sw_disease_condition_stage":[14],"class_list":["post-34391","sw_disease_condition","type-sw_disease_condition","status-publish","hentry","sw_disease_condition_cat-ophthalmological"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.2 (Yoast SEO v27.2) - 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