Cautious hope over landmark eye transplant

A team of more than 140 surgeons, nurses and support staff at NYU Langone Health hospital in New York have completed the world’s first whole-eye-transplant. Despite 46-year-old military veteran, Aaron James, pictured, not having any restoration of sight in his left eye, surgeons said they had seen promising signs of health in the eye, including well-functioning blood vessels.

‘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. ‘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,’ he added.