Postoperative vision-related quality of life and functional vision outcomes with the Argus II Retinal Prosthesis

Background The Argus II Retinal Prosthesis (Second Sight Medical Products, California) was developed to enhance visual outcomes in patients with degenerative retinal diseases. The primary objective of this study was to describe changes in vision-related quality of life based on patient responses to the National Eye Institutes Visual Function Questionnaire (NEI VFQ-25) over a two-year postoperative period. The secondary objective was to assess a relationship between subjective NEI VFQ-25 scores and objective functional vision outcomes. Methods Five patients who were fitted with the Argus II Retinal Prosthesis due to profound retinal dystrophy were assessed in this study. The NEI VFQ-25 was given to patients prior to implantation, at month 12, and month 24 post-implantation. Functional vision data and images from each visit were extracted from the Argus II Retinal Prosthesis Post-Approval Study. Data analysis was completed on IBM SPSS. Results Between Month 0 and Month 24, there was a significant increase in VFQ score in the ‘Social Functioning’ subscale (p s = 0.745, p s = 0.778, p s = 0.541, p s = 0.581, p s = 0.527, p