EURETINA 2024: An overview of the SING-IMT implant with Alfonso Savastano, MD, PhD

Alfonso Savastano, MD, PhD spoke about the SING-IMT implant during his interview with Ophthalmology Times Europe, which took place at the EURETINA 2024 meeting held in Barcelona, Spain, on September 19-22, 2024.

Video Transcript:

Editor's note: The below transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Alfonso Savastano, MD, PhD: Good morning. My name is Alfonso Savastano, and I work in Acquaviva delle Fonti, a hospital in Bari, Italy. And I've been talking about the SING-IMT implant, which is a very, very tiny telescope that you can implant in the eyes of patients affected age-related macular degeneration. And in this way, you can improve their sight.

So the quality of life patients is a very important thing in [our] practice. These patients affected by age-related macular degeneration have a low quality of life, and through these implants, you can improve their quality of life. It's very important, to take care of the quality of life of our patients.

[Patient counseling] is not always easy. There is a lot of technology, and a lot of research, behind these new implants. You have to speak with patients clearly, and you can't create false expectations. Because, of course, you can improve their quality of life, and you can improve their sight...You can't always give their driving license back again. But you can give them sight to understand what they are eating, or to recognize a face, or letters, for example. This [sight loss] can be awful.