An update on human visual prosthesis: The Claes H. Dohlman lecture 2025

This abstract serves to report on the available evidence on the different retinal and visual prostheses for patients with retinitis pigmentosa and other vision-threatening disorders with additional discussion on the ethical implications of such devices. The PubMed, Google Scholar, ScienceDirect, and ClinicalTrials databases were the main resources used for the literature search. An extensive search was performed to identify relevant literature and clinical trials regarding the advances and status of retinal prostheses up to January 2025. Eight devices were found to be current and were ordered by stimulation location. Five have active clinical trials. There are 7 main ethical considerations identified in the literature. Future directions will be presented in the review. This manuscript provides an update on human visual prosthetics, both current and discontinued. While some devices have achieved visual perception in animals and/or humans, there are still challenges to address in the field. Future efforts are headed toward more biocompatible, safe, ethical, and efficacious devices.