Surgeons in New York announce world's first eye transplant
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[November 10, 2023]
By Nancy Lapid
(Reuters) - Surgeons in New York have performed the first-ever whole-eye
transplant in a human, they announced on Thursday, an accomplishment
being hailed as a breakthrough even though the patient has not regained
sight in the eye.
In the six months since the surgery, performed during a partial face
transplant, the grafted eye has shown important signs of health,
including well-functioning blood vessels and a promising-looking retina,
according to the surgical team at NYU Langone Health.
“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, who led the team.
Until now, doctors have only been able to transplant the cornea, the
clear front layer of the eye.
The recipient of the eye, Aaron James, is a 46-year-old military veteran
from Arkansas who survived a work-related high-voltage electrical
accident that destroyed the left side of his face, his nose, his mouth
and his left eye.
The transplant surgery took 21 hours.
Initially, doctors were just planning to include the eyeball as part of
the face transplant for cosmetic reasons, Rodriguez said during a Zoom
interview.
“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, Rodriquez added.
Whatever happens going forward will be monitored, he said.
Presently, the transplanted eye is not communicating with the brain
through the optic nerve.
To encourage healing of the connection between the donor and recipient
optic nerves, surgeons harvested adult stem cells from the donor’s bone
marrow and injected them into the optic nerve during the transplant,
hoping they would replace damaged cells and protect the nerve.
Transplantation of a viable eye globe opens many new possibilities,
Rodriguez said, even if sight is not restored in this case.
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Aaron James of Hot Springs, Arkansas, who survived a deadly
7200-volt electric shock while working as a high-voltage lineman in
June 2021 and later underwent the world’s first whole-eye transplant
as part of a partial face transplant, poses before his accident in
an undated photograph. Courtesy of the James family/Handout via
REUTERS
Other research teams are developing
ways to connect nerve networks in the brain to sightless eyes
through insertion of electrodes, for example, to allow vision, he
said.
“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,” Rodriguez said.
James, who had retained vision in his right eye, knew he might not
regain vision in the transplanted eye.
The doctors “never expected it to work at all, and they told me that
from the get-go,” he said.
“I told them, 'even if I can’t see... maybe at least you all can
learn something to help the next person.’ That’s how you get
started," he said. "Hopefully this opens up a new path.”
James might still regain sight in the transplanted eye, 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.”
(Reporting by Nancy Lapid; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
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