In U.S., physicians have successfully operated on infants and children with a new version of an artificial implant that replaces the eye cornea.

This latest development, points to a new option for dramatically improving the vision of a group of people for whom traditional cornea transplants usually fail. It also mirrors similar success in adult patients.

In the study, the physicians included 17 children who collectively had been through more than 100 surgical procedures, including 39 traditional cornea transplants that had failed. They implanted ‘Boston Keratoprosthesis’, an artificial cornea, in 15 of them, while two children received another type of artificial implants.

All 15 of those children recovered some vision, sometimes remarkably so, and none had an infection or a problem with the implant. There was also improvement in the vision of seven children of and above four years old.

The physicians say that the Boston device is effective in restoring vision and putting an end to long cycles of eye operations in infants and six-week to 13-year old children.

"Finally, we seem to have a method in hand to improve the vision of these children, many of whom have endured several surgeries that have failed," said Dr. James Aquavella, ophthalmologist from the University of Rochester who is pioneering the use of the implant. The Boston Keratoprosthesis is about the size of a contact lens and is sewn into the patient's eyeball with a piece of donor tissue to hold the implant in place, like a washer.

The physicians claim that the new procedure of eye implant is less invasive and cumbersome than some other efforts to implant artificial corneas.