Washington, Nov. 14: US physicians have successfully operated for the first time on infants and children with a new version of an artificial implant that takes the place of the eye cornea.

The results of the operations, conducted by physicians at the University of Rochester Eye Institute and a colleague at Johns Hopkins University, are being announced at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology in Las Vegas.

The new work points to a new option for dramatically improving the vision of a group of people for whom traditional cornea transplants usually fail. It also mirrors similar success in adult patients.

In the study, the physicians included 17 children who collectively had been through more than 100 surgical procedures, including 39 traditional cornea transplants that had failed. They implanted Boston Keratoprosthesis, an artificial cornea, in 15 of them, while two children received another type of artificial implants.

All 15 of those children recovered some vision, sometimes remarkably so, and none had an infection or a problem with the implant. There was also improvement in the vision of seven children of and above four-year of age.

The physicians say that the Boston device is effective in restoring vision and putting an end to long cycles of eye operations in infants and six-week to 13-year old children.

"Finally, we seem to have a method in hand to improve the vision of these children, many of whom have endured several surgeries that have failed," said Dr. James Aquavella, the University of Rochester ophthalmologist who is pioneering the use of the implant.

"These are children for whom, until now, there really has not been a good option. While this study is somewhat small and these children need to be followed for more time, we have decided that for now this is the treatment of choice for children who have corneas that are cloudy or opaque. It's either do this, or do nothing," he added.

So far Rochester University physicians have implanted the Boston device in approximately 25 infants and children, and in more than 100 adults in the last three years. The youngest child to receive the implant was five weeks old.

The Boston Keratoprosthesis is about the size of a contact lens and is sewn into the patient's eyeball with a piece of donor tissue to hold the implant in place, like a washer.

The physicians claim that the new procedure of eye implant is less invasive and cumbersome than some other efforts to implant artificial corneas.

"In the past, people have thought that keratoprosthesis, or an artificial cornea, was only for patients who were in disastrous circumstances, who couldn't receive a cornea the traditional way. Now, because of improvements in materials and in surgical technique, this should be the first choice for some patients," Aquavella said. (ANI)