Magnetic implants used to treat ‘dancing eyes’

A research team has successfully used magnets implanted behind a person's eyes to treat nystagmus, a condition characterised by involuntary eye movements. The case study, published in Ophthalmology and led by UCL and University of Oxford academics, described the implantation of a newly developed set of magnets in the socket beneath each eye of one patient with nystagmus. It's the first description of a successful use of an oculomotor prosthesis, or an implant that controls eye movement. 'Our study opens a new field of using magnetic implants to optimise the movement of body parts,' said Dr Parashkev Nachev (UCL Institute of Neurology), the lead author of the paper. Nystagmus involves a rhythmic oscillation, or flickering of the eyes, and is sometimes called 'dancing eyes.' It often results in oscillopsia, the perception of constant movement of the visual field. The condition affects close to 1 in 400 people and can be both intrinsically disabling and cause reduced visual acuity. 'Nystagmus has numerous causes with different origins in the central nervous system, which poses a challenge for developing a pharmaceutical treatment, so we chose to focus on the eye muscles themselves.