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Article | 2026 AAO

Three-Year Data Show Vision Gains Maintained With Subretinal Implant

New data from a European trial suggest that vision restored by a chip placed beneath the retina can last.

Ophthalmology Management October 11, 2026

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PRIMAvera study investigator Frank Brodie, MD, shares a surgical video of implantation of the PRIMA device at Retinal Physician.

New data presented at the 2026 American Academy of Ophthalmology meeting suggest that vision restored in patients with geographic atrophy after receiving the PRIMA subretinal photovoltaic implant (Science Corporation) was maintained for up to 3 years. The PRIMAvera trial studying the implant enrolled 38 patients at 17 centers across Europe. After surgery, the patients went through vision rehabilitation to learn to use the system, which includes glasses with a built-in camera that projects a signal to the implant, reaching surviving bipolar cells, ganglion cells, and the brain. Results from the first year, published in The New England Journal of Medicine in 2025, showed meaningful improvement. The new findings cover what happened over the following 2 years.

At study start, patients' vision averaged roughly 20/460. Among the 18 patients evaluated at 3 years, vision with the device averaged about 20/120. Seventy-eight percent of those patients, 14 of 18, improved by at least 2 lines, a clinically meaningful improvement. The same share improved by at least 3 lines.

The implant did not appear to harm the vision patients still had. With the device switched off, sight in the implanted eye stayed essentially unchanged over 3 years. Meanwhile, vision in the patients' untreated eyes continued to decline as disease progressed. Most serious complications in the trial came in the first year and were linked to the implant surgery. Between months 13 and 36, 3 patients each had 1 serious eye-related adverse event. The trial had no control group, and at 36 months, 27 of the original 38 patients were evaluable for safety and 18 for efficacy. The summary did not describe the reasons the remaining patients were not assessed. 

"We were very gratified to see that the remarkable gains we found at 12 months persisted through 36 months," said Joseph Martel, MD, the study's lead author, in a news release. "PRIMA directly restores lost functional vision in patients with geographic atrophy. I look forward to seeing these results replicated in the real world in Europe, and I hope these data can also support approval in the US so I can offer PRIMA to my patients."

PRIMA, which received the CE mark in July, is based on work originally done at Stanford University and is being developed by Science Corporation.