Surgeons in New York announce world's first eye transplant
Surgeons have performed the world’s first transplant of an entire human eye, an extraordinary addition to a face transplant – although it’s far too soon to know if the man will ever see through his new left eye, The Guardian reports.
An accident with high-voltage power lines had destroyed most of Aaron James’s face and one eye. His right eye still works. But surgeons at NYU Langone Health hoped replacing the missing one would yield better cosmetic results for his new face, by supporting the transplanted eye socket and lid.
The NYU team announced Thursday that, so far, it’s doing just that. James is recovering well from the dual transplant last May and the donated eye looks remarkably healthy.
“It feels good. I still don’t have any movement in it yet. My eyelid, I can’t blink yet. But I’m getting sensation now,” James told the Associated Press as doctors examined his progress recently.
Today, transplants of the cornea – the clear tissue in front of the eye – are common to treat certain types of vision loss. But transplanting the whole eye – the eyeball, its blood supply and the critical optic nerve that must connect it to the brain – is considered a moonshot in the quest to cure blindness.
Whatever happens next, James’s surgery offers scientists an unprecedented window into how the human eye tries to heal.
