45-minute operation to restore sight to millions

Daily Mail ^ | 6th June 2007 | FIONA MACRAE

[The Magical Mischief Tour]

A revolutionary technique being developed by British scientists could cure blindness in millions of people around the world.

The first 45-minute operations could take place within five years and could be as commonplace as cataract surgery in a decade.

The improvement is likely to be great enough to transform lives, allowing the blind to regain the ability to carry out everyday tasks such as reading or driving.

The pioneering stem cell surgery tackles age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the most common cause of blindness in the elderly. There are about 300,000 sufferers in this country and the number is expected to treble in the next 25 years to around one million as the population ages.

[Salvation]

Bump for later.

[HitmanLV]

I’m still looking forward to a Steve Austin bionic eye.

[PAR35]

The first 45-minute operations could take place within five years

If they are still 5 years from the first try, then the article is BS.

The pioneering stem cell surgery

THERE's the real agenda.

[HKMk23]

MORAL BANKRUPTCY BUMP

Benefitting the living with the blood of the slain.

[Secret Agent Man]

The Dialectic at work again. Crisis created that only stem cell research can solve. Force opponents of embryonic stem cell issue to modify position to ‘cure blindness’.

And the article is about EMBRYONIC stem cell research, not adult stem cell research (which I would be all for).

[TexasCajun]

Office Depot - Home Depot — Body Depot

[headstamp]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvNrAoxy-h8&mode=related&search=

[elizabetty]

How can you possibly operate on millions of people in 45 minutes?

[nevergore]

Ginzu knifes?

[nevergore]

Ginzu knifes?

[gorush]

bump

[traviskicks]

fyi

[neverdem]

thanks, bfl

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

[HereInTheHeartland]

“45-minute operation to restore sight to millions”

It’s part of Hilary’s new low cost health care plan.
It involves combining the technology for robotic manufacturing and remote surgery.
Hillary will sit in the White House on live television and demonstrate how this is done.

[NicknamedBob]

"The scientists are now working on making such patches, measuring just four by six millimetres, which will be injected into the back of the eye under local anaesthetic in an procedure lasting between 45 minutes and an hour.

The patient, who would have to take drugs to stop the cells from being rejected by the body, could go home the same day. After two to three weeks, vision should start to improve."

Thus establishing that this is a treatment, and not a cure. They speak of the success of homologous transplants, then quickly shift to stem cell injections. If the stem cells aren't dangerous, the "drugs to stop rejection" are.

What happens when you go off the medicine regimen? Do your new macular cells die?

Maybe it's just a new way to save on Socialized Medicine. Treat the old folks so they can see better, then watch them fall off the client rolls because they have no immunity.

Someone please get back to me when they have developed a way to grow macular cells from your own body, and can then treat you with your own personalized cure (not treatment).

[FastCoyote]

“How can you possibly operate on millions of people in 45 minutes?”

He He, well said. But here’s another one:

Somewhere in the world a woman is giving birth every 2 seconds.

She must be found and stopped!!

Bada Bing!

[elizabetty]

Somewhere in the world a woman is giving birth every 2 seconds.

Does that mean she is impregnated one second and has the child the next?

[MHGinTN]

Actually, the procedure has been successfully performed on adults using their own eye cells. The use of embryonically derived stem cells is to make it easier for the profiting med techs to do more and faster. However, as admitted in the article, using stem cells from other humans killed at embryo age for their stem cells, recipients “... would have to take drugs to stop the cells from being rejected by the body, could go home the same day.” When your own cells are used, no anti-rejection meds are needed.