Surgeons in New York revealed on Thursday that they have completed the first-ever whole-eye transplant in a person, an achievement hailed as a breakthrough despite the fact that the patient has not regained sight in the eye.
The recipient of the eye is 46-year-old Arkansas veteran Aaron James, who was involved in a high-voltage electrical accident at work that left him without a left eye, nose, mouth, or left half of his face.
So far, medical professionals could only transplant the cornea, which is the transparent outer part of the eye.
“The mere fact that we transplanted an eye is a huge step forward, something that for centuries has been thought about, but it’s never been performed,” said Dr. Eduardo Rodriguez, the team leader, stated in a Zoom interview with Reuters.
At first, surgeons only intended to use the eyeball as part of the face transplant for cosmetic purposes. They removed adult stem cells from the donor’s bone marrow and injected them into the optic nerve during the transplant in the hopes that they would replace damaged cells and shield the nerve in order to promote repair of the link between the donor and recipient optic nerves.
The surgical team at NYU Langone Health reports that in the six months following the procedure, which was done during a partial face transplant, the transplanted eye has demonstrated significant indicators of health, such as functional blood vessels and a promising-looking retina.
“If some form of vision restoration occurred, it would be wonderful, but… the goal was for us to perform the technical operation,” and have the eyeball survive, Rodriguez said.
“I don’t think anyone can claim that he will see. But by the same token, they can’t claim that he will not see,” Rodriguez said. “At this point, I think we’re pretty happy with the result that we were able to achieve with a very technically demanding operation.”
According to him, other research groups are creating methods to link the brain’s nerve networks to eyes that are blind, such as by inserting electrodes to enable vision.
“If we can work with other scientists that are working on other methods of restoring vision or restoring images to the visual cortex, I think we’re one step closer.”
