Dr. Jeffrey N. Weiss, a physician, retinal specialist and electrical engineer did his first ocular retinal stem cell surgery in Germany and now it is FDA compliant in the United States.
“I will not accept that somebody is blind, and that’s it,” he said. “In 2010, I did the first ocular retinal stem cell surgery in Düsseldorf, Germany.”
Since then, Dr. Weiss says his procedure is now FDA compliant in the United States. Dr. Weiss uses stem cells from the patient’s own bone marrow.
“These are your stem cells,” he said. “You do not need to be immunosuppressed.”
Then, he injects the stem cells around each eye, letting the growth factors go to work.
“Once the cells are there, they may stimulate the remaining cells that are already present to start functioning again,” said Dr. Weiss.
“We’ve done about 47 different conditions and many of the conditions are mixed. We have a recently published paper for Non Arteritic Ischemic Optic Neuropathy, where more than 80 percent of people gained vision. We have a paper we just submitted for Retinitis Pigmentosa with approximately 45 percent of the patients gaining seven or more lines of vision.”
Weiss and his team take a patient’s own stem cells, so they do not have to be immunosuppressed, and inject it around the eye. Fifteen to 20 percent see some improvement on the first day, but typically it’s four to six months for the patients to see improvement.
While the procedure is not covered by insurance and costs just under $20 thousand, Dr. Weiss treats many conditions that cause blindness and reviews a patient’s records for free.
Dr. Weiss’ stem cell procedure is registered with the National Institutes of Health.
(Source: Dr. Jeffrey N. Weiss
