Surgeons at New York University Langone Health have successfully performed the world’s first whole-eye transplant, although the patient has not regained his sight. The surgery was performed as part of a partial face transplant on Aaron James, a military veteran who suffered severe facial injuries in an accident. The eye has shown signs of health, including functioning blood vessels and a promising retina, leading the surgeon to believe that James still has a chance of eventually regaining vision in his left eye. This groundbreaking procedure is a significant advancement in the field and opens up new possibilities for future research and treatments related to vision restoration.
The surgery, which lasted 21 hours, was initially intended for cosmetic reasons, with the goal of keeping the transplanted eyeball alive. However, the surgeons also injected adult stem cells into the optic nerve in an attempt to encourage connection between the donor and recipient nerves. Although James is currently unable to see out of his left eye and his eye is not communicating with the brain, this procedure marks a major milestone in the medical field. The transplantation of a whole eye provides new avenues for research and development in restoring vision and connecting nerve networks in the brain to sightless eyes using other methods such as electrode insertion.
