A pensioner with moderate lens opacity and end-stage dry age-related macular degeneration has had his right cataract extracted and an implantable miniature telescope (IMT) inserted to improve his vision.

According to a study in BMJ Case Reports, his visual sharpness in the IMT-implanted eye was measured at logMAR 0.3 at six months and again at two years. However, at three years, his vision had deteriorated to logMAR 0.6 due to progressive enlargement of macular geographic atrophy beyond the area of image magnification. 

Low-vision devices such as hand-held magnifiers can be limited by musculoskeletal comorbidity, but intraocular magnifiers may offer a good alternative. This IMT can magnify image size on the macula by ×2.