A team at Maidstone hospital is pioneering a new technique that could save hundreds of people from blindness.

The new procedure aims to minimise vision loss caused by the growth of new blood vessels at the back of the eye, a condition called wet age-related macular degeneration (wet AMD).

These new vessels can leak blood and fluid into the eye, which can rapidly cause blurred vision and permanent sight loss.

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To relieve the condition, doctors plan to inject a clot-busting drug and a small bubble of gas into the eye.

They hope the anticoagulant drug will loosen clots, and the gas bubble will squeeze blood away from the back of the eye, where it can do serious damage if left untreated.

The team is looking for volunteers with a wet AMD to participate in a year-long trial.

It is led by Mr Luke Membrey, consultant opthalmologist at Maidstone Hospital’s eye department, together with five other consultants.

He said: “We’ll be using an injection of gas into the eye. They [patients] will experience little pain because of lots anaesthetic drops into the eye which will have numbed it.”

After the injection patients will be asked to lay face down to allow the gas bubble to float the blood away.

Almost two million people in the UK have some form of sight loss, about one person in 30.

That number is predicted to almost double by 2050.

Patients interested in taking part in trials should speak to their ophthalmologist next time they visit the hospital eye clinic.

Video: Graham Stothard reports on the pioneering new surgery