A pioneering eye treatment developed in London is giving new hope to blind and partially sighted people living with a rare but devastating condition that can lead to permanent sight loss.
Doctors at Moorfields Eye Hospital say they have achieved something once thought impossible: restoring useful vision and preventing blindness in people with hypotony – a condition where dangerously low pressure causes the eyeball to collapse in on itself.
In a world-first pilot study, seven out of eight patients responded positively to the new treatment. The first person ever to receive it, 47-year-old Nicki Guy, has described the outcome as “life-changing”.
“It’s given me everything back. I can see my child grow up,” Nicki told the BBC.
“I’ve gone from counting fingers and everything being really blurry to being able to see.”
Nicki, who had been living as a partially sighted person, can now read most lines on an eye-test chart and is just one line short of the legal standard for driving. Before treatment, she relied heavily on memory to move around her home and used a magnifying glass for close-up tasks.
“If my vision stays like this for the rest of my life, that would be absolutely brilliant,” she said.
What is hypotony – and why is it so dangerous?
Hypotony occurs when pressure inside the eye drops too low. Without sufficient pressure, the eyeball can lose its shape, crumpling inwards and severely damaging vision. It can develop following eye trauma, inflammation, surgery, or as a side-effect of some medications.
Until now, treatment options were limited. Steroids and silicone oil have been used to “plump up” the eye, but silicone oil is difficult to see through and can be toxic if left in place long-term. Even when the light-sensing cells at the back of the eye were still working, vision often remained blurred.
For many blind and partially sighted people with hypotony, this meant progressive and irreversible sight loss.
A simple idea – with extraordinary impact
The breakthrough came when clinicians at Moorfields tried a different approach using a clear, low-cost, water-based gel already familiar to eye surgeons: hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC).
Rather than using it once during surgery, the team injected the gel directly into the vitreous chamber – the main body of the eye – at regular intervals. The gel restores pressure, supports the retina, and crucially, remains transparent so light signals can pass clearly to the brain via the optic nerve.
Nicki first experienced vision loss in her right eye in 2017, shortly after her son was born. Silicone oil did little to help. When her left eye later began to fail, she refused to give up.
“There has to be something else we can try,” she told her consultant.
That consultant, Harry Petrushkin, admits the decision was daunting.
“The idea that we might cause harm to someone who effectively had one functioning eye was nerve-wracking,” he said.
“But we came up with this solution – and amazingly, it worked.”
What this means for blind and partially sighted people
So far, 35 patients have received the treatment, funded by Moorfields Eye Charity, with the first eight results published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology. Patients receive injections every three to four weeks over approximately ten months.
The key factor is whether the retina still contains viable cells capable of processing light.
“We knew with Nicki there was vision to gain,” says Petrushkin.
“If we could make the eye round and firm again, she could see.”
The implications are significant. Hundreds – potentially thousands – of people each year in the UK could benefit.
Why this matters beyond medicine
For blind and partially sighted people, sight loss is not just a medical issue – it affects employment, independence, confidence, and quality of life.
As Seema Flower, founder of Blind Ambition, puts it:
“Too often, blind and partially sighted people are told that nothing more can be done. Innovations like this remind us that low expectations – not disability – are often the real barrier. When medicine, technology and belief align, lives change.”
This treatment is still in its early stages, but it represents a powerful shift: from managing decline to restoring possibility.
Image to be created (next step)
Purpose: Original Blind Ambition explanatory graphic (not BBC-derived)
