[Review of visual prosthesis (I)--retinal prosthesis].

Research on how to totally or partially restore the vision has attracted more attention in the fields of neural engineering and tissue engineering. Neural interface and visual prosthesis offer alternative ways for partially repairing the visual impairment. The most widely used visual prosthetics are based on retinal stimulation. This article is a state-of-art review of the principles, technical details and the limitations of retinal prosthesis.