PowerMask

Motivation

Retinal degenerative diseases show a slowly progressing course of disease which cannot be stopped by currently available treatment strategies and thus leads to blindness. Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is the most common retinal degeneration in the youth or middle adult age. Approximately 3 million people are affected by RP worldwide. Current drug therapies can only cause a decelerated course of disease. In the last 10 to 15 years, new treatments have been tested by means of electrical stimulation which can significantly improve the patient's desperate situation. However, the technique of these new electrical therapies is not applicable yet.

Objective

Therefore, the aim of this project is the development of an applicator for non-invasive electrical current stimulation at the eye to treat retinal degenerative diseases, optical neuropathy and retinal vascular diseases. The applicator is featured by a novel concept to deliver the electrical current using textile electrodes. Thus, the side effects of previous methods can be minimized while at the same time handling and application convenience can be improved. This allows a more effective electrical stimulation which contributes to the reduction of the symptoms of the above mentioned diseases and to a delay in the course of disease.

The innovative concept of the applicator is based on integrated textile electrodes. This offers a completely novel interface for easy-to-use, non-invasive, comfortable and low-impact electrical eye stimulation. The use of the novel textile electrode concept leads to an enormous reduction in patient load, since irritations of the eye caused by conventional electrodes are minimized or even completely excluded. Thus, a much higher clinical acceptance is achieved for clinical routine use, both on the part of the physician and on the patient's side.