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.
James survived a 7,200-volt electric shock in an accident in 2021 while working as a lineman. The left side of his face touched a live wire, resulting in extensive injuries requiring multiple reconstructive surgeries. In 2022, he was assessed for a full facial transplant and shortly after, his left eye was removed due to excruciating pain.
Under the advice of Dr Rodriguez, the optic nerve was cut as close to the eyeball as possible to preserve as much nerve length to maximise facial reconstruction and, potentially, eye transplant options at a later date. The eye transplant procedure took 21 hours and was carried out in May this year. Surgeons used stem cells in the optic nerve to encourage nerve regeneration. James will now have regular monitoring of electrical responses within the retina to light.