Stability and biocompatibility of a Bionic Eye - Ophthalmoscopy, intraocular pressure, optical coherence tomography and radiography data

Data related to: Implantation and long-term assessment of the stability and biocompatibility of a novel 98 channel suprachoroidal visual prosthesis in sheep

In Eggenberger et al., nine sheep of the Suffolk (N=2) and Dorper (N=7) breeds were implanted in the left eye with a suprachoroidal retinal stimulator (Bionic Eye) for durations up to 100 days. The surgical safety, implant stability and device biocompatibility were assessed.

All procedures were performed conducted in accordance with the Australian Code for the Care and Use of Animals for Experimental Purposes 8th edition (2013) and the ARVO standards for use of animals in ophthalmic research and approved by the Animal Care and Ethics Committee (ACEC) of UNSW Sydney (protocol number 14/155B) .

Animal identifier:
Animals were identified according to the experimental group to which they were assigned (duration of experiment 2 days, 1 month, 2 months and 3 months.
E.g.: 2D#1 was the first animal in the group implanted for a duration of 2 Days. 3M#3 was the third animal in the group implanted for 3 Months.

Fundus and infrared imaging:
Indirect ophthalmoscopy and infrared images were acquired as video files from which still frames were extracted using VLC Media Player software (Free Software Foundation, Inc., Boston, USA).

Intraocular pressure:
A TonoVet rebound tonometer (Icare Oy, Helsinki, Finland) was used to measure the intraocular pressure at different times before and after implantation of the Bionic Eye.

Optical Coherence Tomography:
OCT imaging was performed with an Envisu 2300 system (BiOptigen, Morrisvile NC, USA) and images acquired in the group implanted for a duration of 3 months.