Independent Implant Register: annual report for 2025
Reports, signals and serious harm from optical implants of every make in calendar year 2025, with the Register’s estimate of under-reporting and an updated analysis of harm from discontinued devices.
The Register received 25,906 reports in calendar year 2025, 12% more than in 2024, from wearers, families, clinicians and makers in seventeen countries. Of these, 1,812 described serious harm: a death, permanent loss of sight or another function, surgery to remove or replace a device, or a stay in hospital. The Register issued fourteen signals.
Using the method set out in the 2023 external review, the Register estimates that it receives reports of between a quarter and a half of all serious harm from optical implants in the countries it covers. Reporting by wearers in the Philippines and Kenya has nearly doubled since aftercare clinics began taking reports, but remains well below Japan.
Key findings
- Discontinued devices produced 21% of reports and 26% of serious harm, against about 6% of implants worn.
- Firmware updates were followed within thirty days by 31% of all signals issued since 2021.
- The median time from first report to signal fell to nineteen days.
- Reports from Kenya and the Philippines rose by 38% after aftercare clinics began taking reports in person.
How to cite
Independent Implant Register, Chiba Centre for Visual Science (2026). Independent Implant Register: annual report for 2025. KF-R-2026-02. Tokyo: Kiroshi Foundation. kiroshi.org/research/publications/kf-r-2026-02/
For the full text, write to research@kiroshi.org.